Bergamo or Hallstatt?

Neither has a beach, and both offer lake swimming in summer, but the water is different. From Bergamo you drive out to the lidos of Lake Iseo or the Lecco shore, where the water warms to about 23°C. Hallstatt's lake is deep, dark and mountain-fed, so a swim from its jetty or at Obertraun is colder and is best treated as a bracing dip after a hike.

Bergamo eats far better. It has a real regional kitchen of stuffed casoncelli, polenta with braised meats and game, and cheeses such as Taleggio and Strachitunt, with Valcalepio and Franciacorta wines to go with them. Trattorias in the upper town, aperitivo bars in the lower town and some fine dining give you choices for every meal.

In Hallstatt you eat in a handful of guesthouse dining rooms serving schnitzel and dumplings. Char or whitefish from the lake is the one meal worth seeking out, and kitchens can close early, so anyone who cares about food will end up driving to Bad Ischl's patisseries.

Bergamo has much more to see. There is the walled Città Alta, Piazza Vecchia with Santa Maria Maggiore and the marble front of the Cappella Colleoni, and the Accademia Carrara with Raphael and Bellini, which together fill a day or two.

Hallstatt's culture is older and narrower. Its draws are seven thousand years of salt mining, the prehistoric finds that named the Hallstatt culture, and the painted skulls of the Beinhaus. It is fascinating for half a day or a day, but the village itself is most of the sight.

Neither is a place for a big night, but Bergamo at least gives you an evening out. There are aperitivo, wine bars and pubs around Via XX Settembre and Borgo Santa Caterina, and drinks on the walls in summer. In Hallstatt the evening is dinner and a walk by the dark lake, and that is all.

Hallstatt is one of the great Alpine settings. The Dachstein massif rises straight above the lake, with the Five Fingers platform, the ice and mammoth caves, the Echerntal waterfalls and the Gosausee all within reach, plus via ferratas in summer and freeride on the Krippenstein in winter.

Bergamo has good outdoors too, with woodland paths up to San Vigilio, hiking between rifugi in the Orobie, cycling in the foothills and the lakes nearby. Still, it is a city with mountains near it rather than a village set inside them.

Direct trains put Milan's Duomo and the Last Supper less than an hour from Bergamo. Lake Como, Monte Isola on Lake Iseo, Crespi d'Adda and Brescia are all easy outings, and Verona and Cremona are within reach too. You could fill a week of day trips from here without repeating yourself.

The Salzkammergut gives Hallstatt gentler outings: the Kaiservilla in Bad Ischl, the altarpiece at St Wolfgang and Gmunden's lake castle on the Traunsee. Salzburg makes a long day, though. Without a car you depend on buses and the lakeside railway, so every trip takes planning.

Funicular rides up to the Città Alta and on to San Vigilio, gelato on the walls and the city playgrounds give children plenty of easy hours in Bergamo. Leolandia, with rides for younger children, and the Le Cornelle wildlife park are both close by. The upper town's cobbles are tough going with a buggy, but the city is calm and compact.

Hallstatt has fewer things for children, though a couple are real highlights: the miners' slides in the salt mine, and the ice caves for older children. Otherwise its single lane is steep and crowded, which is hard work with small children, so families often stay in Obertraun.

Bergamo is easier to get in and out of. Its airport is a short bus ride from the centre, funiculars link the lower and upper towns, and direct trains run to Milan, Brescia and Lecco. Hallstatt is tiny and walkable once you are there, but the station is across the lake and needs a boat crossing, buses are thin outside summer, and a car helps far more.

Bergamo is the place for shopping. Via XX Settembre and the Sentierone have fashion under the arcades, and the upper town's main lane is lined with cheese shops, salumi and wine to take home, with Milan close for anything grander. Hallstatt's shopping is a short walk past souvenir stalls, where salt from the mine is the one buy you will not find anywhere else.

The two are far apart on cost, and Bergamo is clearly the cheaper. It is moderate by northern Italian standards, comfortable rather than a bargain, but a night's stay or a dinner goes noticeably further there than in Hallstatt. The thing to watch is the Città Alta, where sleeping and eating inside the walls costs more, and summer weekends book up early.

Hallstatt is one of the dearer stops in the Austrian Alps, because a village this small and this famous has little room to absorb demand. Dinner is priced for visitors, and the paid sights mount up quickly: a family doing both the salt mine and the Dachstein cable car will feel it. The same spending covers a noticeably longer trip in Bergamo.

Bergamo has a real if modest stage life built around Donizetti. The Teatro Donizetti runs an opera season and an autumn festival of his works, and the Teatro Sociale and Bergamo Jazz add more, with La Scala an evening's trip away. Hallstatt has a brass band at feast days and the odd church concert, so for music you have to go to Salzburg or Bad Ischl's summer operetta.

Both rely on spa towns nearby rather than their own baths, and Bergamo's are slightly stronger: Belle Époque San Pellegrino Terme up Val Brembana and the old sulphur springs at Trescore Balneario. Hallstatt has the salt-brine baths of Bad Ischl and Bad Aussee.

The calm is different too. In Bergamo it is the quiet upper town in the early morning and unhurried cafés. In Hallstatt it is mist on the lake at dawn and an empty waterfront at dusk, once you have got through the crowded middle of the day.