Assisi or Zagreb?

Neither city is a beach destination. Both are around two hours from the sea, and they offer much the same kind of summer swim, just in different settings. From Assisi it is a 45-minute drive to the small lidos on Lake Trasimeno, where the water is warm, shallow and a little cloudy. Many visitors simply stay somewhere with a pool. Zagreb has its swimming inside the city: Jarun has pebbly shores with lifeguards, and Bundek is a smaller lake across the Sava. Both are a tram ride away, not a drive.

Zagreb gives you more ways to eat. Every morning Dolac market sells farm cheese, vegetables and flowers, the coffee culture shapes the whole day, and there are hearty dishes like štrukli and turkey with mlinci, plus wine from Plešivica and Zagorje. Fine dining is limited, but there is enough variety for a week.

Assisi's cooking is excellent at its best but narrow: truffled strangozzi, Castelluccio lentils, torta al testo, Subasio olive oil and Sagrantino from Montefalco. You need to look for it, though, because the streets near the basilica serve set menus to tour groups. The good meals are in side-lane trattorias and agriturismi in the valley.

Assisi has the stronger heritage, because it is built around one of Europe's great artistic monuments. The double Basilica of San Francesco, with its Giotto cycle and Cimabue frescoes, is the centrepiece. Santa Chiara, the Roman Temple of Minerva and the Porziuncola chapel inside Santa Maria degli Angeli complete a UNESCO-listed pilgrimage town.

Zagreb offers more variety but less depth. You get the medieval Upper Town with St Mark's tiled roof, the Austro-Hungarian Green Horseshoe and a set of solid collections, from the Mimara to the Museum of Broken Relationships, plus the arcades of Mirogoj. It is a pleasant two days, but nothing in it matches the basilica.

Zagreb has a real evening life and Assisi has almost none. Café-bars on Tkalčićeva and around Flower Square move from coffee to cocktails and craft beer as the evening goes on. In summer the crowd heads to the lakeside clubs at Jarun, and students keep alternative venues open all year. It is relaxed rather than wild.

In Assisi an evening is a long dinner, a glass of Sagrantino and a walk through floodlit lanes that are empty by eleven. Anyone who wants more has to make the half-hour trip to Perugia.

Both have a wooded mountain right on the doorstep, so the outdoors is equally good, but the walks feel different. Monte Subasio carries meaning as well as views: the path climbs past Francis's hermitage at the Eremo delle Carceri to open meadows above the Umbrian valley, and the Valnerina and Sibillini are further off. Medvednica is more of an everyday city escape. A tram and bus reach its beech woods and mountain huts, Maksimir and the Sava embankments are good for running, and Plitvice's waterfalls make a long day out.

This is where Assisi stands out. A cluster of first-rate hill towns lies within an hour: Spello, Perugia, Spoleto with its Ponte delle Torri, Gubbio and Todi. Orvieto's cathedral and the Tuscan towns of Cortona and Montepulciano are within reach for a full day. Trains run along the valley, but the smaller towns are much easier with a car.

Zagreb's outings are pleasant but less striking. There is Trakošćan castle and the Zagorje countryside, baroque Varaždin, Samobor and its cream cake, and Karlovac's star-shaped fortress. Ljubljana works as a long day, but no single trip has the pull of an Orvieto or a Gubbio.

Zagreb is much easier with children. The Lower Town is flat, trams take pushchairs, and there is plenty to fill a few days: the zoo in Maksimir, the old trams and mock mine at the Tesla technical museum, the tiny funicular and the swimming lakes in summer.

Assisi is safe and children are made welcome, but the sights are frescoed churches that need silence, and the stepped streets are hard work with a pushchair. Families usually stay at a valley agriturismo with a pool and visit the town in short trips. Older children will still enjoy the Rocca Maggiore.

Zagreb is the simpler city to get around. The flat Lower Town is easy on foot, a dense network of blue trams covers the rest, and the funicular saves the climb to the Upper Town. You only need a car for Plitvice or the Zagorje castles.

Assisi is small enough to cross in twenty minutes, but it is nearly all slopes and stairs. The station is 4km below the town in Santa Maria degli Angeli, and away from the valley rail line buses are few, so exploring Umbria properly usually means hiring a car.

Neither city is a shopping destination, but Zagreb has more range. Ilica has chains, local fashion and a few small design shops, and there is Dolac's covered hall for food and the Sunday flea market on Britanski trg. Good things to bring home are licitar hearts, lace and a Croatian necktie. Assisi's streets are mostly rosaries and Tau crosses. In among them you can find Assisi-embroidered linen, Deruta ceramics, truffle products and Sagrantino.

Costs are much the same, and the savings come from different places. In Assisi the basilicas are free to enter, and convent guesthouses and valley agriturismi keep beds cheap, but hotels inside the walls cost more around Easter. Zagreb keeps day-to-day spending low through cheap trams, market food and inexpensive museum entry, while cocktails and the best hotels cost what they would in Western Europe.

Zagreb has a proper cultural calendar and Assisi does not. The Croatian National Theatre stages opera and ballet, the Zagreb Philharmonic plays at Lisinski, and there are the Zagreb Soloists, jazz clubs and summer concerts in Upper Town courtyards. Much of the spoken theatre is in Croatian.

Assisi's music is mostly sacred: organ recitals and choirs in the basilica around feast days. In spring the Calendimaggio festival fills the town with medieval song and processions. For opera or Perugia's summer jazz festival, you have to travel.

Assisi is the more restful place, even though it has almost no spas. The calm comes from the town itself: convent retreats, silent walks up to the Eremo delle Carceri and lanes that are almost empty once the tour groups leave.

Zagreb offers slow café mornings and shady parks, but it is still a capital city. Its proper soaking is at the thermal resorts in Zagorje, such as Tuheljske and Stubičke Toplice, about an hour's drive away.