The Italian surprisingly won the downhill race on home soil - by the smallest possible margin.
Emma Aicher, the Swedish-German from Sundsvall, swore in Swedish when she looked up at the scoreboard and saw that she was one hundredth of a second slower than Pirovano.
The Italian, out in eighth place, had to wait nervously before she could celebrate the biggest success of her career so far.
American Breezy Johnson came third, 29 hundredths of a second behind Pirovano.
A new downhill race in the Women's World Cup awaits in Val di Fassa on Saturday.
Then Emma Aicher can take over the lead in the downhill cup from Lindsey Vonn, the American who was seriously injured in the Olympic race in Cortina.
