Assisi or Innsbruck?

Neither city is a beach destination, and both send you to a lake. From Assisi it is about 45 minutes by car to Lake Trasimeno, whose lido beaches are warm but shallow and a little murky, so most visitors settle for a pool at their agriturismo.

Innsbruck makes it slightly easier. The Lanser See and Natterer See sit on the plateaus just above the city and reach around 22°C in high summer, and the clear but cool Achensee lies further out. Still, it is an afternoon's swim, not a reason to come.

Both serve country food with a narrow range, but it comes from very different countryside. Assisi gives you Umbria on a plate: strangozzi with black truffle, Castelluccio lentils, torta al testo, Monte Subasio olive oil and Sagrantino from Montefalco, best found in side-lane trattorias or valley agriturismi.

Innsbruck is heartier and more Alpine, with Gröstl, Kaspressknödel and Kaiserschmarrn, often eaten at a mountain hut after a walk, and Viennese-style cafés for strudel. Assisi is stronger on wine and produce, while Innsbruck has the coffee-house afternoons and a few cheaper student places.

Assisi has the bigger prize. The two-tiered Basilica of San Francesco, with Cimabue in the Lower Church and the Saint Francis cycle above, is a monument of European importance, and the UNESCO town around it adds the Temple of Minerva, Santa Chiara and the Porziuncola below the walls.

Innsbruck's Habsburg heritage is more varied but less overwhelming: the Hofkirche with Maximilian's bronze figures, the Golden Roof, the Hofburg and the cabinet of curiosities at Ambras Castle, plus modern touches such as the Bergisel ski jump. Each takes two days or so, but Assisi's frescoes are the ones people travel across Europe to see.

Innsbruck clearly wins here, though neither is a party city. Assisi falls silent after dinner. A glass of Sagrantino and a walk through floodlit, empty lanes make up the evening, and Perugia is the nearest place for bars.

In Innsbruck, the university fills the brick arches under the railway viaduct with bars and small clubs that stay open late at weekends, and the old town has pubs and wine bars. In winter, après-ski in the nearby resorts adds another option.

Innsbruck is in another league. The funicular and Nordkette cable cars take you from the old town to a ridge at about 2,300m in under half an hour, with the Karwendel behind it and glaciers, via ferratas, rafting and skiing all close by.

The outdoors around Assisi is gentler. You can walk up Monte Subasio past the Eremo delle Carceri to grassy summit meadows, cycle the flat valley between Spello and Montefalco, or drive further to the Valnerina and the Sibillini. It is lovely walking country, especially when the wildflowers are out, but these are not mountains on Innsbruck's scale.

Assisi sits in the middle of a dense cluster of hill towns, and that is hard to beat. Spello is ten minutes away, Perugia half an hour, Spoleto, Gubbio and Todi all within an hour, and Orvieto and the Tuscan border towns make a full day out. You will want a car for the smaller places.

From Innsbruck the trips reach further, into three countries by rail. Hall in Tirol and Rattenberg are close by, Munich and Salzburg are each a little under two hours away, Bolzano and Merano lie over the Brenner, and Neuschwanstein is a drive away. The choice is wide, but the distances are longer and the towns less closely packed than in Umbria.

Innsbruck is much easier with children. The ibex and wolves of the Alpenzoo are on the funicular line, summer brings adventure trails and playgrounds by the huts, the plateau lakes suit a family swim, and winter has ski schools. Only rainy days need some planning.

Assisi is safe and welcoming but made for silence and stairs: frescoed churches, stepped lanes that are hard with a pushchair, and hot afternoons. Older children may enjoy the Rocca Maggiore and a walk on Monte Subasio, but most families stay at an agriturismo with a pool.

Assisi is a twenty-minute walk from end to end, but all of it is uphill or on stairs, and the station lies about 4km below in Santa Maria degli Angeli. Trains serve the valley towns, and for the rest of Umbria most people hire a car.

Innsbruck's centre is flat and walkable. Trams and buses reach Igls and the Stubai valley, and the funicular starts at the edge of the old town, so you can manage a whole trip without a car.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and what you bring home from each is very different. Assisi's shops mostly serve pilgrims, so devotional pieces and Franciscan keepsakes take up most of the windows. The buys worth having are Umbrian: linen embroidered in the local Assisi style, painted pottery from Deruta, a bottle of Monte Subasio olive oil, truffle products or Sagrantino. There are no clothes shops or markets to browse.

Innsbruck gives a shopper more to do. Maria-Theresien-Strasse has the chain stores and a couple of shopping centres, and the arcaded lanes of the old town have jewellery, crystal and Tyrolean crafts. It is also the place to buy a proper loden jacket or dirndl. Walkers and skiers can buy their gear in its specialist mountain shops, and Assisi has nothing like them, though neither city has luxury fashion.

Assisi is the cheaper stay. The basilicas are free to enter, convent guesthouses offer plain rooms at low cost, and the valley agriturismi are good value, provided you eat away from the streets around the basilicas.

Innsbruck has Alpine resort prices, highest in ski season and around the Christmas markets, and cable car tickets mount up on an active trip. Spring and autumn are cheaper, and the city cards that bundle lifts and transport help.

Innsbruck has a proper season. The Tiroler Landestheater puts on opera, operetta and dance, the Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra performs regularly, and the summer Festival of Early Music uses settings such as the Spanish Hall at Ambras Castle.

Assisi's music is sacred and occasional: organ and choral concerts in its churches around feast days, and the medieval songs and processions of Calendimaggio in spring. For opera or jazz, people go to Perugia.

Neither city has baths of its own, and each offers a different kind of calm. Assisi's is spiritual: convent retreats, silent walks to the Eremo delle Carceri and still mornings before the tour groups arrive, with only a few spas in country hotels.

Innsbruck's is physical. Hotels in Igls and the plateau villages have saunas with mountain views, the big thermal complexes in the Ötztal and Zillertal are about an hour away, and an evening in a mountain hut helps you slow down.