Bled or Florence?

Neither has a sea on the doorstep, but Bled at least gives you swimming every summer day. Lake Bled warms to around 24°C in midsummer, and you can slip in from the grassy lidos below the castle, the shallow western end or a rock along the path, with colder, wilder Bohinj nearby.

Florence has no water to swim in at all. Cooling off means a hotel or public pool, and the sandy Versilia beaches near Viareggio take a full day's outing by train.

This is one of Florence's strongest suits and one of Bled's weakest. Bled's menu is short: the famous cream slice by the lake, trout, žlikrofi and buckwheat dishes in a few inns, and a lot of hotel and pizzeria cooking, with the better meals out in the valley farm inns.

Florence has a whole cuisine to explore, from bistecca alla fiorentina and ribollita to lampredotto from street carts, the Mercato Centrale and Sant'Ambrogio, Chianti by the glass and serious gelato. Eat in the Oltrarno rather than beside the Duomo and a food lover can stay for a week.

Bled's sights are a pleasant half-day: the clifftop castle with its small museum and printing workshop, the pletna boat to the island church and its wishing bell, and the villas of the old spa resort.

Florence is in another league entirely. The Duomo, the Uffizi, David in the Accademia, the Bargello, the Pitti Palace and the San Marco frescoes make it one of the great art cities of the world, and the main museums need booking ahead.

Bled has effectively no nightlife: a hotel bar, a lakeside café, a walk along the lit shore and bed. Anyone wanting more has to drive to Ljubljana.

Florence is no clubbing capital either, but its evenings have life. Aperitivo leads into wine bars, crowds gather with glasses in hand on Piazza Santo Spirito, Sant'Ambrogio draws locals, and summer brings outdoor bars along the Arno.

Nature is the reason to go to Bled. The Julian Alps begin at the village, with the Ojstrica and Osojnica viewpoints, the Vintgar Gorge, Bohinj, the Savica waterfall and the Pokljuka plateau all close, plus rafting, canyoning, paragliding and winter skiing at Vogel.

Florence's landscape is softer and more cultivated. The walks to Fiesole, the cypress lanes of Chianti and the Casentino forests are lovely in spring and autumn, but they are farmland and wooded hills, and summer heat cuts long walks short.

Bled makes a good base for a small country: Ljubljana is under an hour away, Radovljica is next door, and Postojna, Predjama, Piran and the Austrian lakes around Klagenfurt make fuller days out.

Florence's list is hard to beat. Siena, Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano, Volterra and the Chianti villages are all close, Bologna is a short high-speed train ride, and the Val d'Orcia towns reach further south, enough for a week without repeating yourself.

Bled is the easier place with children, provided they like being outdoors. Rowing to the island, ringing the bell, the shallow lidos, the toboggan run on Straža hill and the flat lake path for pushchairs fill sunny days, though rain leaves little to do.

Florence asks more of young children. Climbing the dome, the secret passages of Palazzo Vecchio, the Museo Galileo and the Boboli Gardens work well, but narrow pavements, summer crowds and heat wear families down, and Pinocchio's park at Collodi is the main outing built for them.

Both centres are walkable, but they differ beyond the edge of town. Bled's lake path links everything locally and buses reach Ljubljana and Bohinj, yet the trailheads, Vršič and the Soča valley really need a car.

Florence works almost entirely on foot, with the main sights within twenty minutes of each other, trams to the airport and Santa Maria Novella station in the centre for rail day trips. A car only becomes useful for the hill villages.

Bled offers little beyond honey, lace, painted beehive panels and postcards from lakeside stalls. Florence is a genuine shopping city built on craft: leather from San Lorenzo and small workshops, marbled paper, Ponte Vecchio jewellers, Oltrarno gilders and framers, and the fashion houses of Via de' Tornabuoni.

Neither is cheap, but Bled is the gentler on the wallet. Its lakeside hotels charge for the view, yet guesthouses in the surrounding villages, the campsite and bases in Radovljica or Bohinj bring costs down, and the trails and viewpoints are free.

Florence's centre hotels and museum admissions add up quickly over a few days. Street food, market lunches, house wine and walking everywhere help, as does staying across the river or coming in winter.

Bled has no theatre or concert hall, only the odd summer concert in the castle or a church and folk evenings for visitors. Florence, the birthplace of opera, has the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with its orchestra, ballet and long-running spring festival, plus the Teatro della Pergola, though jazz and contemporary live music are thin.

Bled is the more restful stay. It began as a nineteenth-century cure resort, warm springs feed the lakeside hotel spas, and the calm of early walks and slow boat rides does the rest, especially outside high summer.

Florence itself is crowded and offers only hotel spas and quiet corners such as the Bardini garden. Its real relaxation lies outside the city, in Montecatini Terme, the sulphur pools of Saturnia and farm stays in the hills.