Assisi or Ljubljana?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Ljubljana gives you a little more choice. Locals swim in the Sava on the city's edge, and Lake Bled is about an hour away for warm summer swims. The Adriatic at Piran makes a long day out, though the shore there is concrete platforms and pebbles rather than sand.

From Assisi, the only natural water nearby is Lake Trasimeno, about 45 minutes away. Its small lidos have shallow, slightly cloudy water. Most visitors simply book somewhere with a pool.

Ljubljana offers more variety and more ways to eat. You can graze at the open-air market under Plečnik's colonnades, eat štruklji and jota in a gostilna, or try one of the handful of modern Slovenian kitchens. The wines of Vipava, Brda and Styria, poured by the glass along the river, are the real draw.

Assisi's cooking is plainer but has excellent raw materials: truffled strangozzi, Castelluccio lentils, Subasio olive oil and Sagrantino from Montefalco. The catch is that many restaurants near the basilicas serve set menus to tour groups. Eating well usually means finding a trattoria on a side lane or an agriturismo in the valley.

Assisi has the greater sights. The Basilica of San Francesco, with the dim Lower Church and the bright Upper Church above it, is a landmark of Western art. Santa Chiara, the Temple of Minerva and the Porziuncola chapel add depth to a small town made of pink stone.

Ljubljana's appeal lies in its townscape rather than in any one masterpiece. Plečnik's bridges, embankments and library give the centre its character, and the castle hill and Secession façades complete the picture. Its museums are pleasant but secondary. Both places can be seen in two or three days, but Assisi's art is the kind people travel across Europe to see.

Ljubljana has an actual nightlife, while Assisi has almost none. On warm evenings the bars on both banks of the Ljubljanica fill up, students keep things lively during term, and the scruffy clubs at Metelkova stay open late at weekends. It suits a drink by the water better than a big night out.

In Assisi, a night out means dinner, a glass of Sagrantino and a walk through floodlit lanes that are empty by eleven. Anyone wanting bars has to go to Perugia.

Ljubljana is surrounded by bigger and more varied landscapes. You can climb Šmarna Gora on the edge of town and cycle across the marshes to the south. Within about an hour are the Kamnik-Savinja Alps, Triglav National Park and the Vintgar gorge, and further out there is rafting on the Soča and the caves at Postojna and Škocjan. In winter there are small ski resorts within reach.

Assisi has one fine mountain right behind the town. The path up Monte Subasio climbs through oak woods past the Eremo delle Carceri to open summit meadows, and the olive-covered valley below is good for gentle cycling. The Sibillini and the Valnerina offer wilder country, but they need a car and a full day.

Assisi has the edge as a touring base, because it has so many first-rate towns close together. Spello is ten minutes away. Perugia and Spoleto are on the same railway line, and Gubbio, Todi and Orvieto's cathedral make full days out. Montepulciano and Cortona over the Tuscan border are also within reach.

From Ljubljana the trips cover more variety of scenery: Bled's island church, Predjama Castle built into its cliff, the Lipizzaner stud at Lipica and Venetian-looking Piran on the coast. Trieste or Zagreb can be visited from the city too. It offers mountains and sea, but not Umbria's run of art towns.

Ljubljana is clearly easier with children. The centre is flat and mostly closed to cars, and younger children love the funicular, the Dragon Bridge and the puppet theatre, which needs no Slovene. Tivoli Park's playgrounds, a modest zoo and a hands-on science centre fill two or three days.

Assisi welcomes families but offers them little. Its steep, stepped streets are hard work with a pushchair, and its frescoed churches need silence. Older children enjoy the Rocca Maggiore and the walk up Subasio, and a valley agriturismo with a pool makes a better base.

Ljubljana is the simpler city to move around. The old town, market, museums and Tivoli Park are all a short, level walk apart, and there are electric shuttles and a bike-share scheme too. Intercity buses reach most of the country.

Assisi is compact but steep, with stairs between the basilica and Piazza del Comune. The station is about 4km below in Santa Maria degli Angeli, reached by bus or taxi. The valley railway line covers the main towns, but most of Umbria really needs a hire car.

Neither city is worth planning a trip around for shopping, but Ljubljana has a little more to browse. There is coastal salt, honey and pumpkin-seed oil at the market, Idrija lace, a Sunday flea market on the embankment and a few design boutiques on Trubarjeva street.

In Assisi, rosaries and Tau crosses fill most of the shop windows. The things worth taking home are the Assisi-embroidered linens, Deruta ceramics, truffles and Sagrantino.

The two cost about the same overall, but you save money in different places. In Assisi the basilicas are free, convent guesthouses offer cheap, simple rooms and agriturismi are good value. Prices rise around Easter and on feast days, and the restaurants by the basilicas charge for the view.

In Ljubljana, the set lunches at inns and the cheap local wine keep food costs down, and walking everywhere costs nothing. Rooms are the expensive part, priced like Western Europe in July and August. Staying outside the old town or visiting out of season helps.

Ljubljana has much more on stage. There is the Slovenian Philharmonic, an opera and ballet house, and a full programme at Cankarjev dom. In summer the Ljubljana Festival brings orchestras to Plečnik's open-air Križanke courtyard. Spoken theatre is in Slovene, but music needs no translation.

In Assisi, the performing arts are mostly organ and choral concerts in the churches, along with the medieval pageantry of Calendimaggio in spring. For opera or jazz you need to go to Perugia.

Both cities offer calm rather than real spa culture, but of different kinds. Assisi's quiet is spiritual: convent retreats, silent walks to the Eremo delle Carceri and lanes that empty at dusk.

Ljubljana's calm is that of a green, car-free capital with long café afternoons. It also has more practical options, with a sauna complex at its water park and Slovenia's thermal spa towns within about an hour's drive.