Assisi or Graz?

Neither city is a place to swim, and both rely on inland lakes in high summer. From Assisi you drive to the small lido beaches of Lake Trasimeno, which are warm, shallow and a little murky. If you stay in Assisi, a hotel or agriturismo pool is often the better answer.

Graz has former gravel pits such as the Schwarzlsee just south of the city, with grassy banks and jetties. They are closer and better set up for an afternoon dip, but they are still a break from sightseeing rather than a beach.

Graz gives you more to eat and drink. Its morning markets at Kaiser-Josef-Platz and Lendplatz, pumpkin seed oil on almost everything, and Sauvignon Blanc from taverns in the southern wine hills make food a real part of the trip.

Assisi's cooking is fine but narrow: truffle strangozzi, Castelluccio lentils, torta al testo and Sagrantino from Montefalco. Too many tables near the basilica serve set menus to tour groups. The good meals are found on side lanes or at agriturismi in the valley.

Assisi has the more important sight. The two churches of the Basilica of San Francesco, with frescoes by Cimabue, Simone Martini and the Giotto cycle, are among the great monuments of Europe. Santa Chiara, the Temple of Minerva and the Porziuncola complete a town devoted to Saint Francis.

Graz offers more variety rather than one masterpiece. It has Renaissance courtyards, the Landeszeughaus armoury, Schloss Eggenberg and the modern Kunsthaus beside the Mur. It is a rewarding old town, but it does not have a centrepiece of Assisi's weight.

Assisi has no nightlife beyond a glass of wine and a walk through lit, empty lanes, and anyone wanting more has to go to Perugia. Graz has its students, the bar lanes around Mehlplatz and Färbergasse, arty bars in Lend and a few weekend clubs. Graz is made for relaxed bar-hopping rather than clubbing, and it gets quieter in the summer break.

Graz has more outdoors close at hand. You can take the cable car up the Schöckl, cycle the Mur path, climb the ladders of the Bärenschützklamm gorge or hike the alpine Gesäuse and Hochschwab within about two hours.

Assisi has one excellent walk on its doorstep. The path climbs Monte Subasio past the Eremo delle Carceri to open summit meadows, and there is easy valley cycling towards Spello and Bevagna. The wilder Valnerina and the Sibillini mountains take a longer drive.

This is where Assisi pulls ahead. Spello is minutes away, Perugia and Spoleto are an easy train ride, and Gubbio, Todi, Orvieto and the Montefalco wine villages are all within an hour or so. A week of hill towns is easy to fill.

Graz's outings are more scattered. They include the South Styrian Wine Road, Riegersburg on its crag, the Lipizzaners at Piber and the Stübing open-air museum. Admont Abbey, Mariazell and Maribor take longer, and most of these trips need a car.

Graz is much easier with children. Trams take buggies, the Stadtpark and Augarten have playgrounds, and the Schlossberg has its underground slide and fairytale train. The Herberstein wildlife park and summer toboggan runs on the Schöckl fill extra days.

Assisi is safe and welcoming, but its stepped streets and fresco-filled churches are hard on young legs and pushchairs. Families usually stay at a valley agriturismo with a pool and visit the town only briefly.

In Assisi it is the slope that tires you, not the distance. The town is tiny, but almost every errand involves a climb. The railway sits down in the valley, so arriving and every outing by train start with a bus or taxi ride. The line only serves the towns along the valley floor, and the hill towns that make Assisi worth staying in are hard to reach without a hire car.

Graz asks far less of you. You can do without a car for your whole stay in the city, because public transport links the centre, the station and the outer sights, and the one real height, the Schlossberg, has a mechanical way up. Both cities need a car for the countryside, but in Graz that only matters on the day you go out, not every day.

Neither city is a place to come for shopping, but Graz gives you more to browse. Assisi's shops are there for pilgrims, so devotional souvenirs crowd out almost everything else. The worthwhile goods are a thin layer of Umbrian craft and produce, such as embroidered linen, Deruta ceramics and the oil and wine of the surrounding hills. You pick these up between churches rather than setting out to shop.

Graz has a proper high street in its historic lanes, a long-established department store and independent design and vintage shops across the river in Lend, so you can spend an afternoon shopping. As in Assisi, the best things to take home are edible, but here they come from the Styrian larder: pumpkin seed oil, Schilcher and regional chocolate from the markets, with traditional costume as the local craft. Neither city offers much in the way of luxury or fashion.

Assisi is the cheaper stay. The great churches cost nothing to enter, convent guesthouses offer simple rooms, and eating a lane or two away from the basilicas cuts costs.

Graz is fair for Austria rather than cheap. Student lunch menus, bakeries and a walkable centre help, but sit-down dinners and wine cost the usual Austrian amounts.

Graz is far ahead. Its opera house, the second largest in Austria, runs a full season. The Musikverein has hosted concerts for generations, Styriarte brings early music in summer, steirischer herbst stages avant-garde work in autumn, and the music university feeds a strong jazz scene.

Assisi offers organ recitals and choirs in its churches around feast days, plus the costumed Calendimaggio festival in spring. For opera or Perugia's summer jazz festival, you have to travel.

Graz has the edge thanks to the Styrian thermal villages about an hour east. Bad Blumau, designed by Hundertwasser, and Loipersdorf have warm pools and saunas open to day visitors. Assisi offers a different kind of rest with no treatments: convent retreats, silent walks to the hermitage and evenings of real stillness once the tour groups leave.