Bern or Florence?

Neither city is on the sea, but only Bern makes swimming part of a summer day. Locals walk upstream from the Marzili, jump into the Aare and let the current carry them back past the Federal Palace, and Lake Thun's calmer bathing spots are twenty minutes away by train. The river is cold and fast, so it is for confident swimmers only.

Florence has nothing like that in town. Cooling off means a hotel or public pool, and the sandy beaches of the Versilia coast near Viareggio take a full day. The sea there is warmer than anything near Bern, but it works better as a separate stay on the coast.

Food is a big reason to choose Florence over Bern. Bern eats heavy and traditional: the Berner Platte of smoked meats, rösti and fondue in guildhall dining rooms and cellar restaurants, Emmental cheese at the Bundesplatz market, and very good chocolate. It is satisfying, but the choice is limited and eating out is expensive.

Florence has bistecca, ribollita and lampredotto from street carts, the Mercato Centrale and Sant'Ambrogio for seeing what locals buy, and Chianti poured by the glass. Skip the set menus near the Duomo and eat at the family trattorie in the Oltrarno and around Santo Spirito.

Bern's old town is a pleasure to walk: covered arcades, painted fountains, the Zytglogge clock and the Minster tower looking towards the Alps. The Zentrum Paul Klee and the Einstein flat on Kramgasse add more than you might expect from a small capital, and two days covers it all.

Florence is on another level. Brunelleschi's dome, the Uffizi galleries, David in the Accademia, the Bargello, the Brancacci Chapel and the Pitti Palace together hold much of the Renaissance, and a week is not too long. The cost is queues, so book the big museums ahead.

Neither city is for clubbing, but Florence has more life after dinner. Its evenings start with aperitivo and spill out into Piazza Santo Spirito on warm nights, and there are also locals' bars around Sant'Ambrogio and student pubs near the centre.

Bern stays indoors in the vaulted cellar bars under the arcades and along Aarbergergasse, and it is quiet on weeknights. Its one edgier option is the Reitschule, whose late, rough-edged parties have no real match in Florence.

From Bern's old town you can see the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, and Interlaken is about an hour away for cable cars, high trails and winter skiing. Closer in are Lake Thun, the funicular up the Gurten and the wooded Aare paths. This is real mountain country right on the doorstep.

Florence's countryside is gentler and more cultivated. There are olive terraces at Fiesole, cypress-lined lanes for cycling in the Chianti, and the forests of the Casentino further out. It is lovely in spring and autumn, but summer afternoons there are too hot for long walks.

Both are excellent bases, and Florence has the edge because of the towns themselves. Siena, Pisa, walled Lucca, San Gimignano and the Chianti villages are all within easy reach, and Bologna is a short high-speed train ride away. A car does make the hill towns and wineries far easier.

Bern's strength is the trains. Lucerne, Basel, Fribourg, Gruyères, Murten and Thun can all be reached without a car or much planning. The towns are pretty, but few are as famous as Siena or Pisa.

Bern is the easier city with children. It is calm and safe, and it has the bear park on the riverbank, the wooded enclosures of the Dählhölzli zoo, the animal dioramas in the Natural History Museum and a big playground at the top of the Gurten funicular. Just keep small children out of the Aare.

Florence takes more work. Climbing the dome, the secret passages of Palazzo Vecchio and the Boboli Gardens are good for older children, and the Pinocchio park at Collodi makes a day out. But summer heat, crowds and narrow pavements make it tiring for younger ones.

Both centres can be crossed on foot in about twenty minutes, so the difference is in comfort. In Bern the arcades keep you dry, punctual trams and buses cover everything else, and a lift and short funiculars take the strain out of the climb from the river.

Florence has no metro, and walking means narrow pavements, crowds on the main streets in summer and stone paving that is hard on tired feet. Small buses go up to Fiesole and Piazzale Michelangelo. The historic centre is closed to most traffic, so a car only helps for the countryside.

Florence is far better for buying something made there. You will find leather from workshops and the San Lorenzo stalls (look closely, as quality varies), marbled paper and notebooks, goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio, artisan workshops in the Oltrarno and the luxury fashion houses of Via de' Tornabuoni.

Bern is pleasant but limited. Swiss chains, watches and chocolate line the arcades of Spitalgasse and Kramgasse, and antiques and crafts fill the cellar shops of Gerechtigkeitsgasse, but there is little fashion or luxury.

Neither is cheap, but Florence is the gentler on your budget. Lampredotto and panini from the stalls, lunch at market counters and cheap house wine keep daily costs reasonable. The main extra costs are museum tickets and central hotels in high season.

Bern is very expensive in every way, from simple guesthouses to a beer on a terrace. It helps that hotels usually include a tram and bus pass and that the bear park, the river and the Federal Palace tours are free. Supermarket takeaway lunches are the usual way to save.

Florence has the deeper classical tradition, as opera began here around 1600. The Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino runs a full season and the spring Maggio Musicale festival is one of Europe's oldest. Most visitors, though, end up at tourist chamber concerts in churches.

Bern has less weight but more variety. There are opera and the symphony orchestra in the Casino, contemporary dance at the Dampfzentrale, a spring jazz festival and rock and pop on the Gurten in July, which suits anyone who wants more than classical music.

Bern is slightly easier for slowing down without leaving town. The pace is unhurried, Sundays are quiet, lunches on the riverside terraces go on for a long time, and the large thermal bath complex on the western edge has warm pools, saunas and steam rooms a short tram ride away. For a proper spa stay, people go up to the mountain spa hotels of the Bernese Oberland.

In Florence the crowded centre works against rest in high season, and the city has only hotel and day spas. Calm means early mornings in the Boboli and Bardini gardens, or leaving town: the old spa town of Montecatini Terme is under an hour away by train, the outdoor sulphur pools of Saturnia take a longer day out, and you can also spend a few nights on a farm in the hills.