Assisi or Sarajevo?

Neither town works for a beach vacation, and the swimming each offers is a short side trip. From Assisi it is a 45-minute drive to the small lido beaches of Lake Trasimeno, where the water is warm but shallow.

Sarajevo's options are colder and wilder: mountain rivers and the Jablanica lake to the south. The Adriatic is too far for a day, so plan a separate stay on the coast. In both places a hotel pool is the easier answer.

Sarajevo has the stronger food scene. Its cooking has a distinct Ottoman-Balkan character you can taste on every corner of Baščaršija, from ćevapi in somun bread to burek sold by weight. Bosnian coffee with rahat lokum is a ritual worth slowing down for.

Assisi's strength lies in its ingredients rather than its restaurants. There is truffle on strangozzi, Monte Subasio olive oil and Sagrantino from Montefalco, but the eating near the basilicas leans towards tour-group set menus. To eat well there, you have to seek out side-lane trattorias or a country agriturismo.

These two are close, but they offer different things. Assisi has one overwhelming monument, the double Basilica of San Francesco with its fresco cycles. Around it stand a Roman temple, Santa Chiara and the Porziuncola in a single coherent town of pink stone. If great religious art is what moves you, Assisi has the edge.

Sarajevo's culture is about layers and recent history rather than masterpieces. In a few streets you pass mosque, synagogue and two cathedrals, then the Latin Bridge of 1914. The siege is close at hand in the Tunnel of Hope and the War Childhood Museum. It is less beautiful than Assisi, but often more affecting.

Sarajevo is far ahead here. Its café-bars fill from the afternoon, and the streets around Ferhadija stay busy on warm nights. Students keep a handful of cellar bars and small clubs open past midnight at weekends. The scene is more about cheap drinks and conversation than dancing.

Assisi has almost nothing after dark beyond a glass of Sagrantino and a stroll through floodlit, empty lanes. Night owls staying there have to go to Perugia.

Monte Subasio gives Assisi a fine walk straight from the town walls. The path climbs through holm oaks to the Eremo delle Carceri and on to open summit meadows at about 1,290m, which are thick with flowers in spring. Below, the flat valley is good for easy cycling between olive groves and vineyards, but for real mountains you have to drive to the Valnerina or the Sibillini.

Around Sarajevo the mountains are bigger, wilder and much closer. A cable car climbs from the edge of the Old Town to Mount Trebević. The Olympic ranges of Jahorina and Bjelašnica, under an hour away, offer skiing in winter and hiking on open ridges in summer, with the shepherds' village of Lukomir above the Rakitnica canyon beyond.

Assisi is the better base by a distance. Spello is ten minutes away, Perugia half an hour and Spoleto under an hour by train. Gubbio, Todi, Orvieto and the Tuscan towns of Cortona and Montepulciano are all within a day, so you could fill a week without repeating yourself.

From Sarajevo, the main outing is Mostar, reached by a fine train ride down the Neretva gorge, and you can break the journey at Konjic. South of Mostar, Blagaj's dervish house and the fortress village of Počitelj fill out the day, best reached by car or tour. Travnik and the Višegrad bridge are rewarding too, but the roads are slow and winding.

Neither is designed for children, but Sarajevo gives them more to do. Its flat Old Town is easy with a pushchair, and there is the Trebević cable car, a carriage ride to the streams of Vrelo Bosne, a small zoo and gentle winter skiing.

Assisi is safe and calm, but its stepped streets, silent churches and hot afternoons test younger children. Families usually do better staying at a valley agriturismo with a pool and making short visits to the town.

Both are manageable on foot, and the difference is mainly in shape. Assisi's centre is tiny but steep, climbing on stairs and slopes from the basilica to Piazza del Comune. Its station is 4km away down in the valley, and a hired car is almost essential for the hill towns.

Sarajevo stretches along a flat valley floor. The old tram line runs from Baščaršija out to Ilidža, and cheap taxis cover what the tram misses. The hillside districts are as steep as anything in Assisi, though.

Sarajevo offers more to browse. On Kazandžiluk you can watch coppersmiths hammering coffee sets, and the Bezistan and nearby lanes sell kilims, slippers and filigree, though you should sort the craft from the souvenir stock.

Assisi's streets are mostly rosaries and Franciscan keepsakes. The worthwhile buys are a few local goods: embroidered Umbrian linen, Deruta ceramics, olive oil and Sagrantino.

Sarajevo is markedly cheaper, one of the least expensive capitals in Europe. Meals, trams, taxis and central hotels all come in well below what you would pay in Italy.

Assisi is reasonable for such a famous place. The basilicas are free and convent guesthouses keep rooms cheap, but restaurants by the basilicas charge for their position, and hotels inside the walls cost more on feast days.

In Assisi, live music is mostly sacred: organ recitals and choral concerts in the basilicas, plus the costumed song and processions of Calendimaggio in spring. For opera, regular concerts or jazz, you have to go to Perugia.

A visitor to Sarajevo has more to book. The National Theatre stages drama, opera and ballet through the season, and the Philharmonic plays regularly. The autumn MESS theatre festival and the November jazz festival are the high points, and you may hear sevdah love songs in traditional restaurants. Most plays are in the local language, though.

The two are about level, but they offer rest in different ways. Assisi's calm is spiritual: convent retreats, a silent walk to the Eremo delle Carceri and empty lanes at dawn, with spas only in a few country hotels.

Sarajevo has actual waters. The thermal springs at Ilidža have been used since Roman times and now feed a spa with warm pools at the end of the tram line. The shaded avenue to Vrelo Bosne is close by, though winter smog takes some of the peace away.