Assisi or Trieste?

On swimming, the two could hardly be further apart. Assisi is a hill town about two hours from either coast. Its nearest swimming is the shallow, slightly murky water of Lake Trasimeno or a hotel pool.

Trieste lives with the sea from June to September. You swim off rock and concrete rather than sand: ladders lead into clear water at Barcola, there are old bathing establishments in town, and prettier pebble coves lie at Sistiana and Grignano. Even so, a swim is part of an ordinary summer day there.

Both are honest regional kitchens rather than restaurant cities, but Trieste gives you more to explore. Assisi cooks the Umbrian way, with truffled strangozzi, Castelluccio lentils, wild boar, torta al testo, Monte Subasio olive oil and Sagrantino. The good meals are on the side lanes and in agriturismi, away from the set menus near the basilica.

Trieste mixes Italy, Austria and the Slavic world. There is pork carved at the buffet counters and served with horseradish, jota and sardoni, strudel and presnitz, and a coffee culture with its own vocabulary. The osmize on the Karst, farmhouses that sell their own wine and cured meats, offer something Assisi has no match for.

Assisi edges ahead because of one supreme monument. The Basilica of San Francesco, with the Giotto cycle above and the Cimabue and Lorenzetti frescoes below, is art of the first rank. The Temple of Minerva, Santa Chiara and the Rocca complete a compact town you can see in two days.

Trieste's appeal is broader and more urban. It has Habsburg grandeur around Piazza Unità, the Borgo Teresiano and San Spiridione, San Giusto's mosaics, Miramare Castle, a great synagogue and the Risiera memorial. That gives more variety, but nothing with the weight of Assisi's basilica.

Neither is a place for a big night out, but Trieste at least has evenings. Assisi falls silent once the day-trippers leave, and a glass of Sagrantino and a walk through floodlit lanes is all there is. For anything later, you go to Perugia.

Trieste has an aperitivo culture around Piazza Unità, the Canal Grande and Cavana. Students keep a few streets of wine bars and pubs busy, and in summer the kiosks along Barcola stay open into warm nights. Clubs are few, though.

Both have mountains on the doorstep, and Trieste adds the sea. In Assisi the outdoors means Monte Subasio, where a path climbs through holm oaks to the Eremo delle Carceri and on to open summit meadows. There is easy cycling across the valley to Spello and Bevagna, and bigger days out in the Valnerina or the Sibillini.

Trieste has more range. The Strada Napoleonica and the Rilke Path run along cliffs above the gulf, and Val Rosandra offers hiking and climbing. The Karst hides the Grotta Gigante and the Škocjan Caves. The Miramare marine reserve is good for snorkelling and kayaking, and the gulf is a serious sailing water.

Both are excellent bases, and Assisi is slightly the stronger because the best of Umbria lies so close. Spello is minutes away and Perugia and Spoleto are an easy train ride. Gubbio, Todi and Orvieto each make a day out, and Montepulciano is just across the Tuscan border.

Trieste's reach spans three countries instead, from Aquileia's mosaics and star-shaped Palmanova to Piran, Ljubljana and Postojna, with Venice possible in a long day. The choice is between a dense cluster of hill towns and a wider, more varied map.

Trieste is clearly the easier of the two with children. Miramare's gardens, the Grotta Gigante, the waterfront aquarium, the science centre and summer days at Barcola make real outings, even though swimming is off rocks and the upper town is steep.

Assisi is safe and welcoming but built for silence and devotion, and its stepped streets are hard on pushchairs. Older children may enjoy the Rocca Maggiore and Monte Subasio. Most families stay at a valley agriturismo with a pool and go up to the town in short bursts.

Trieste is simpler to get around. Piazza Unità, the Canal Grande and the waterfront sit on flat ground, a dense bus network reaches Barcola, Miramare and the Karst, and boats cross the bay to Muggia. Only the walk up San Giusto is a real climb.

Assisi is small but steep from end to end, and its station is 4km below in Santa Maria degli Angeli. Off the valley railway to Perugia and Spoleto, a hire car becomes close to essential.

Assisi's shops mostly sell devotion, while Trieste's trade on its merchant past and its coffee. Rosaries and Franciscan souvenirs fill Assisi's lanes. The things worth taking home are embroidered Assisi linen, Deruta ceramics, Subasio olive oil and a bottle of Sagrantino.

Trieste offers a little more browsing. You can search the antique and second-hand shops in the old-town lanes, buy beans from the city's roasters, and pick up Karst wine and presnitz to carry home. The clothes shops around Corso Italia are ordinary, though, and neither city has a fashion scene.

Costs are much the same in both, fair rather than cheap. In Assisi you save through free entry to the basilicas and simple rooms in convent guesthouses. In Trieste the savings are cheap buffet meals and coffee at the bar, inexpensive buses and free swimming at Barcola.

Both charge more near their famous sights and at peak times: Easter and feast days in Assisi, and the autumn regatta and high summer in Trieste.

Trieste offers far more for a night of performance. The Teatro Verdi runs a full season of opera and ballet, and operetta survives as a Habsburg legacy. The Politeama Rossetti and the Slovenian-language theatre add drama, and in summer there are concerts in the castle courtyard on San Giusto.

Assisi's music is sacred and seasonal: organ and choral concerts in the basilicas, and the medieval pageantry of Calendimaggio in spring. For opera or Perugia's summer jazz festival, you have to leave town.

Neither has thermal baths or much of a spa scene, so the rest comes from each town's pace. Assisi's quiet is spiritual: convent retreats, silent walks to the Eremo delle Carceri and empty lanes at dawn. Trieste's is urban and literary, with long sittings in old coffee houses and evening walks on the Molo Audace as the sun sets over the gulf.