Bergamo or Colmar?

Neither city is a place to come for the water, but Bergamo has a real option on hot days. Lake Iseo has lidos and grassy shores at Sarnico and Lovere, the Lecco arm of Lake Como is close by, and the lakes reach about 23°C in July. Expect pebbles, lawns and concrete platforms rather than sand.

Colmar, out on the Alsace plain, offers municipal pools and the small, cold lakes up in the Vosges valleys, and not much more.

The two are broadly level, and the difference is mostly one of climate and cooking style. Bergamo cooks Lombard mountain food: casoncelli in butter and sage, polenta with braised game, and a great run of valley cheeses such as Taleggio and Strachitunt, with Franciacorta sparkling wine from next door.

Colmar's winstubs serve the Franco-German dishes of Alsace, such as choucroute, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée. Here wine takes centre stage, with Riesling and Gewurztraminer tasted at the cellar door a few kilometres away. In both towns the choice beyond regional cooking is thin.

Bergamo's old town stands on a hill inside its sixteenth-century Venetian walls, while Colmar's lies flat along its canals. Bergamo's sights are grand monuments: the marble front of the Cappella Colleoni and the Baroque interior of Santa Maria Maggiore stand side by side off Piazza Vecchia, and down in the lower town the Accademia Carrara holds a full collection of Raphael, Bellini and Mantegna.

Colmar works the other way round. The whole streetscape of painted timber houses and carved façades is the sight, more than any one building. Its great work is Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece in the Unterlinden Museum, a single overwhelming painting where Bergamo offers a broad gallery.

Neither keeps you out late, but Bergamo has more going on. Aperitivo stretches into wine bars along Via XX Settembre and in Borgo Santa Caterina, students fill a few bars, and on summer nights people drink in the squares and along the walls until around midnight.

Colmar winds down after dinner, with a few wine bars and pubs around Petite Venise. For a real night out, Bergamo people take the train to Milan and Colmar people take it to Strasbourg.

The outdoors is a strength of both, but the mountains are different. From Bergamo you can walk straight out of the upper town into the wooded Colli park. Further north, the Orobie Alps are high, rugged country with rifugi and mountain lakes, and they make for demanding summer hikes.

Colmar's landscape is gentler: paths through the vineyards between wine villages, then the rounded, forested Vosges along the Route des Crêtes, at their best in autumn when the vines turn. Both regions are much easier to explore with a car.

From Bergamo you go by train to other cities: Milan's Duomo and Last Supper in under an hour, Brescia's Roman remains, and Verona or Cremona for a longer day. Closer in are the UNESCO factory village of Crespi d'Adda and car-free Monte Isola on Lake Iseo.

Colmar's best outings are smaller and closer. Eguisheim, Riquewihr and Kaysersberg lie a few kilometres apart along the wine route, and a car or bike is the easiest way to reach them. Head the other way and you are soon in another country, with Basel and Freiburg each about an hour away and Strasbourg half an hour by train.

Colmar is the easier town with children. It is flat and compact, with boat rides through Petite Venise, storks on the roofs and a dense ring of attractions in the vineyards: an otter and stork park, free-roaming macaques, an eagle show, plus Europa-Park over the Rhine.

Bergamo has the funiculars and the walk along the walls, but the steep cobbles of the Città Alta are hard going with a pushchair. Its outings for children come down mainly to Leolandia and the Le Cornelle wildlife park.

Bergamo is a little easier without a car. Funiculars lift you to the upper town and on to San Vigilio, the airport is a short bus ride away, and a light-rail line runs up Val Seriana. The one catch is the steep climb between the two levels on foot.

Colmar is flat and small enough to walk everywhere, and the station is close to the centre. Once you head for the wine villages, though, the buses thin out and a bicycle or car becomes almost essential.

Neither is a shopping destination, and what you bring home differs. Bergamo's arcaded lower town has Italian chains and mid-range fashion, and the lane through the Città Alta is lined with cheese shops and delis. Milan is close for serious fashion.

Colmar is about regional crafts and food: Soufflenheim pottery, printed Alsatian linen, gingerbread and wine bought straight from the producer. Its Christmas markets, spread over several squares, are the high point of the shopping year.

Bergamo is a little kinder on the budget, mainly because lower-town hotels are fairly priced and the buses and funicular cost little. Staying up in the Città Alta costs more.

In Colmar the food and wine are reasonable, and village tastings are often free, but rooms are scarce. In summer and the Christmas weeks they become expensive and book out early. Staying in a nearby wine village is the usual way round it.

Bergamo has a real stage life for its size, built on its son Donizetti. The Teatro Donizetti runs a season of opera and theatre and an autumn festival devoted to his works, and Bergamo Jazz has a long spring history. La Scala is an easy evening trip.

Colmar's small municipal theatre and its July classical and autumn jazz festivals are pleasant, but outside those weeks serious opera or concerts mean travelling to Strasbourg or Basel.

Bergamo wins clearly for spas. San Pellegrino Terme, a Belle Époque resort about forty minutes up Val Brembana, has a grand thermal spa, and Trescore Balneario's sulphur springs have been used since Roman times.

Colmar has no bathing tradition and only hotel spas. What it offers instead is a slow pace, with quiet canals in the evening and long lunches among the vines.