Antibes or Bergamo?

Antibes has proper sand, which is rare on this coast. The gently shelving beaches of Juan-les-Pins and La Salis are the centre of a summer stay, and around Cap d'Antibes you can swim from rocks and small coves such as La Garoupe.

Bergamo is inland, so swimming means a trip to Lake Iseo or the Lecco arm of Lake Como. There you swim from pebble, grass or concrete platforms. It is a pleasant escape on a hot day but no reason to choose the city.

Bergamo is the better place to eat. Its Lombard mountain cooking has a strong identity: casoncelli with butter and sage, polenta with braised meats and game, and valley cheeses such as Taleggio and Strachitunt. The trattorias, cheese counters and pastry shops of the Città Alta make eating a reason to wander, and Franciacorta is just over the border.

Antibes is at its best on market mornings at Cours Masséna, with simple Niçoise food such as socca, pissaladière and grilled fish, eaten outdoors with rosé. Beyond that and a few good old-town bistros the choice is that of a seaside town, and the streets near the port need care.

Antibes rests mainly on one fine museum, the Picasso collection in the Château Grimaldi on the sea wall, where he worked in 1946. Add the ramparts, the old-town lanes, Fort Carré across the harbour and Villa Eilenroc on the cape, and two days covers it comfortably.

Bergamo packs a good deal more into the same time. The Città Alta is an almost complete hilltop town inside UNESCO-listed Venetian walls, with Santa Maria Maggiore and the marble front of the Cappella Colleoni around Piazza Vecchia. Below it, the Accademia Carrara holds Raphael, Bellini and Mantegna, a collection of a different order from anything in Antibes.

Neither is a place for a big night out, and both send people elsewhere for one: Nice from Antibes, Milan from Bergamo. Antibes has the edge in high summer, when Juan-les-Pins keeps beach bars, lounges and a few clubs open into the early hours and yacht crews fill the pubs near Port Vauban.

Bergamo's evening is a long aperitivo that moves on to wine bars around Via XX Settembre and Borgo Santa Caterina, or to drinks on the walls of the upper town. It usually ends around midnight, but it carries on through the year, while much of Antibes closes out of season.

Both are strong for the outdoors, in quite different ways. Antibes is about the sea: the coastal path over the limestone of the cape, snorkelling and diving in clear water, and sailing and paddleboarding in the bay. For proper hiking there are the red cliffs of the Esterel and the gorges above Grasse.

Bergamo is about mountains and lakes. Woodland paths climb from the upper town to San Vigilio, and Val Brembana and Val Seriana lead into the Orobie Alps, with rifugi, high lakes and a little skiing in winter. In both places a car makes the best of it much easier.

Antibes is a base for the Riviera coast, and Bergamo is a base for the lakes and cities of Lombardy. From Antibes the coastal train links Nice, Cannes, Monaco and Menton, and boats cross to the Lérins Islands. Inland are the hill villages of Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Eze and Grasse, and Sanremo across the Italian border makes a longer day.

From Bergamo the trips are more varied. Milan's Duomo and Last Supper are under an hour by train, and the lakes of Como and Iseo include car-free Monte Isola. There are also historic cities such as Brescia, Cremona, Verona and Mantua, with the Franciacorta vineyards in between.

Antibes keeps children busy on the beach, while in Bergamo it is funiculars and theme parks. The sand at Juan-les-Pins and La Salis shelves gently enough for small children, and there are boats in the port to watch between swims. Little else is built for children, though, and in August you need early starts.

In Bergamo, the everyday treats are the funicular rides up to the Città Alta and San Vigilio and a gelato on the walls. Leolandia, with rides for younger children, and the Le Cornelle wildlife park are both a short trip away. The steep cobbles of the upper town are hard work with a buggy.

Both centres are easy on foot and both sit on good railways. Bergamo is slightly easier overall. Funiculars lift you to the Città Alta and San Vigilio, the airport is a short bus ride away, and direct trains run to Milan, Brescia and Lecco.

Antibes is flat and compact, and the coastal line makes the Riviera towns simple to reach. Buses to the cape and the hill villages are slow, though, and summer traffic and parking on the coast road are a real trial.

Neither is a shopping destination, and fashion shoppers head for Milan or Cannes. Bergamo offers a little more: arcaded streets of Italian chains and mid-range fashion in the lower town, and an upper-town lane of cheese shops, salumi and wine sellers that is ideal for edible souvenirs.

Antibes is smaller and more local. The Provençal market is good for olive oil, herbs and soaps, and old-town boutiques sell linens and ceramics. Biot glass and Vallauris pottery are best bought in their villages nearby.

Bergamo is clearly the cheaper stay. Lower-town hotels are fairly priced, trattorias and aperitivo bars are reasonable, and buses and funiculars cost little. Rooms in the Città Alta and summer weekends cost more.

In July and August, Antibes prices its rooms like a luxury resort, and beach-club loungers and seafront terraces add up fast. Rates drop sharply in spring and autumn, and cooking with food from the market and using the regional trains help.

Bergamo has a stage that runs through the year, built on its native composer Donizetti. The Teatro Donizetti stages opera, concerts and theatre and an autumn festival of his works. The Teatro Sociale and the spring Bergamo Jazz festival add more, and La Scala is an evening's trip away.

Antibes has one landmark, Jazz à Juan, held each July under the pines by the sea since 1960. Outside that festival, the Anthéa theatre and summer events in the old town are modest, and opera means a trip to Nice.

Bergamo is the better place to unwind, thanks to real spa towns close by. San Pellegrino Terme has a Belle Époque thermal spa up Val Brembana, and the sulphur springs at Trescore Balneario have been used since Roman times. The quiet early mornings and evenings in the Città Alta help too.

Antibes offers seawater thalassotherapy and the spas of the grand hotels on Cap d'Antibes. It is restful in May, June and September, but the crowds and traffic of high summer take the calm away.