Bled or Bologna?

Bled has the better swimming, simply because the water is right there. In high summer you can slip into the lake from grassy lidos, wooden piers or rocks along the path, or swim out to the island. Colder, wilder Lake Bohinj is half an hour away.

Bologna has no water of its own. A swim means an hour on the train to Rimini or Cervia, where the Adriatic is warm and shallow but lined with rented sunbeds. That works as a day out of the summer heat, not as part of the stay.

Bologna is a city people travel to for its cooking, and Bled is not. In Bologna, pasta is still rolled by hand in shop windows, and family trattorias serve mortadella and tortellini in brodo. The Quadrilatero is lined with delicatessens, and Parmigiano and Parma ham come from towns less than an hour away.

Bled has kremšnita on a lakeside terrace, trout and žlikrofi in a few inns, and a lot of hotel and pizzeria cooking. The better meals are in the farm inns out in the valleys, and anyone who travels to eat will run out of options within a couple of days.

Bled has a handful of memorable sights: the clifftop castle with its small museum and famous view, the baroque church on the island reached by pletna boat, and the old spa villas along the shore. Together they make a lovely single day.

Bologna needs two or three days for its centre alone. The porticoes, Piazza Maggiore and San Petronio, the Two Towers, the seven churches of Santo Stefano, the anatomical theatre in the Archiginnasio and the Bolognese painting in the Pinacoteca give it a depth Bled cannot match.

After dark the two have little in common. In Bled, an evening means a drink on a hotel or café terrace and a stroll along the lit shore, and the village is asleep before midnight.

In Bologna, students keep the university quarter around Piazza Verdi busy until late, Via del Pratello is lined with small taverns, and aperitivo leads on to wine bars. The scene is informal rather than polished, the clubs are out on the edge of town, and August is the quiet month.

Landscape is the reason to choose Bled. It sits where the Julian Alps begin, and the Ojstrica and Osojnica viewpoints, the Vintgar Gorge, Lake Bohinj and the Pokljuka plateau are all close. Activities run from meadow walks to canyoning, and there is skiing in winter.

Bologna's outdoors is gentler: hill paths up to San Luca and through the Colli Bolognesi, the gypsum caves of the Parco dei Gessi, and the Via degli Dei trail to Florence. The higher Apennines are an hour and a half away, and the summer heat pushes walking into spring and autumn.

Both make good bases, but Bologna's position on the main rail junction of northern Italy puts more within reach without a car. Florence is about half an hour away. Ravenna's mosaics, Ferrara, Modena and Parma are short train rides, and Venice, Verona and Padua each make a long day out.

Bled's outings take more planning. Ljubljana and Radovljica are close, while Postojna cave, Predjama Castle and the harbour at Piran each fill a full day. The Wörthersee in Austria lies just beyond the Karawanks tunnel, and Italian Friuli is reachable by car.

Bled is the better choice for children who like being outside. Summer days fill easily with rowing to the island to ring the bell, the shallow lidos, the toboggan run and rope park on Straža, and the gorge walkways. A wet day is much harder to fill.

Bologna is easy to get around with children, since the centre is flat, largely car-free and shaded by porticoes, and pasta and gelato keep mealtimes simple. Its sights are aimed at adults, though, so families tend to head out to Mirabilandia or the beach at Rimini. The midsummer heat is hard on small children.

Both centres are easy on foot, so the difference lies beyond them. Bologna's station sits at the edge of the old town with fast and regional trains across the north, and buses climb into the hills. A car is more burden than help in its largely car-free centre.

In Bled the lake path links the whole village, and buses and trains reach Ljubljana and Bohinj. Trailheads, the Vršič pass and the Soča valley are thinly served, though, so anyone exploring the Alps usually hires a car or books transfers.

Bled has almost nothing to buy beyond honey, lace, painted beehive panels and souvenirs from the lakeside stalls. Bologna is no shopping capital, but it gives you real browsing. Its delicatessens sell Parmigiano and balsamic vinegar to take home, and there are high-street chains on Via dell'Indipendenza, fashion houses around the Galleria Cavour and markets at the Montagnola and Piazza Santo Stefano.

Overall costs come out much the same, but the money goes in different places. In Bled you pay for the view, and lakeside rooms are dear in July and August. Beds are cheaper in Radovljica, Bohinj or at the campsite, and the trails and viewpoints cost nothing.

In Bologna, eating out is where you save: trattorias and generous aperitivo cost less than in Italy's best-known tourist cities. Old-town hotels are expensive, though, and the big trade fairs make rooms scarce across the city.

If live performance matters to your trip, Bled cannot promise any. There is no theatre or regular venue. A summer concert in the castle, a church or by the lake, or a folk evening staged for visitors, is a matter of luck. A planned night of opera or music means going to Ljubljana, under an hour away.

Bologna has something on most nights of the year. The Teatro Comunale is one of Italy's historic opera houses, and with its long jazz tradition and the students' gig circuit you can find live music without booking far ahead. Spoken theatre is in Italian, so for most visitors the stage means opera and concerts, and in summer the music moves out into the squares and courtyards.

Slowing down comes more naturally in Bled, which grew up in the nineteenth century as a health resort where Arnold Rikli brought guests for air and sun cures. Hotel spas use the mild springs at the eastern end of the lake. The real tonic, though, is the stillness of early walks and slow boat rides, especially outside high summer.

In Bologna, relaxing means a long lunch under the arches, in a city where the student quarter is noisy and summers are heavy. For thermal water you go out to Castel San Pietro Terme or to Porretta Terme, an old spa town in the Apennines.