The group, led by the Mayor of Sestriere Valter Marin, instead favour a Turin-led attempt reusing many of the venues central to the 2006 bid.

His letter, reportedly sent to Giovanni Malagò, was supported by officials from Città di Pinerolo, Bardonecchia, Cesana Torinese, Chiomonte, Claviere, Pragelato, Prali, Sauze d'Oulx and Torre Pellice.

It is thought that these areas would only play a peripheral role in the Milan/Turin bid which has been formally submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by the March 31 deadline for submitting interest.

According to torino.corriere, Marin praised "not only the extraordinary success of the 2006 Games" but also "the enthusiastic participation of organisers and athletes" and the great number of visitors at the World Cup competitions held in Sestriere in December 2016.

The Milan-Turin bid has flexibility as it could be a completely joint bid or one led by Milan.

CONI officials have made clear, though, that they favour the latter scenario and they believe that the IOC do as well because Turin hosted the Games as recently as 2006.

They claim that Turin would be prepared to be involved in a joint-bid despite public references towards a solo attempt.

Any Italian bid, however, still requires the support of the yet-to-be-formed Italian Government if it is to receive the final green light.

Milan has never hosted a Summer or Winter Olympic Games.

Calgary in Canada, Erzurum in Turkey, Graz and Schladming in Austria, Sapporo in Japan, Sion in Switzerland and Stockholm in Sweden are other interested cities.

Those who submit have the next six months to provide more details of their bids before the IOC Session in Buenos Aires in October is due to propose official candidates.

A choice will then be made at an IOC Session next year.