Bled or Lucca?

Neither town has a beach of its own, and they solve that in very different ways. In Bled you swim in the lake itself, from grassy lidos and wooden piers below the castle or at the shallow Velika Zaka end. The water is fresh and calm, and the season is short.

From Lucca you take a train for about 25 minutes to Viareggio and the long Versilia sands. There you choose between rows of beach-club umbrellas and the wilder pine-backed dunes of the Lecciona, in warmer water that stays swimmable for longer. If you want to be in the water within a short walk, Bled is easier. If you want real sea and sand, go with Lucca.

Lucca is the place to eat. Its rustic provincial cooking includes tordelli in ragù, Garfagnana spelt soup, chestnut dishes in the cold months, cecina from bakery counters, buccellato and the Colline Lucchesi wines, all served in family osterie inside the walls.

Bled has its famous cream slice and a few inns serving trout and žlikrofi. Beyond that it is mostly hotel dining rooms and pizzerias aimed at day visitors, and the better meals mean driving out to farm inns in the valleys.

Lucca's whole centre is the sight. The walls, the towers, the carved arcades of San Michele in Foro, the Ilaria del Carretto tomb in the cathedral and the oval amphitheatre square are enough for two unhurried days.

Bled offers one memorable postcard: the cliff-top castle with its small museum and printing workshop, and the baroque island church reached by pletna boat. That makes a fine half day or so, but anyone interested in architecture or museums will want more than Bled can give.

Both towns go quiet early. Lucca at least has an evening ritual, with aperitivo on Piazza San Michele, a long dinner, a few wine bars and student pubs, and in summer the Versilia discos are a taxi ride away. Bled's evenings stop at a terrace drink and a walk along the lit shore, and for a real night out you have to go to Ljubljana.

This is Bled's great strength. The Julian Alps rise right behind the lake, and Vintgar Gorge, the Pokljuka pastures, the Savica waterfall and the Vršič road to the Soča valley are all within easy reach. There is rafting on the Sava, paragliding, and skiing in winter.

Lucca's outdoors is gentler and further from the door. Around town there are the walls, the Serchio cycle paths and olive-covered hills. The marble peaks of the Apuan Alps and the Garfagnana woods are about an hour north, and they are well worth the trip, but the mountains are an excursion here rather than the backdrop to every day.

Lucca has the stronger list, and most of it is reachable by train. Pisa is about half an hour away and Florence a little over an hour, with Pistoia and Montecatini on the same line. Closer to town are the Marlia and Collodi villas, and to the north lie Pietrasanta's studios, Carrara and Viareggio. The Cinque Terre is possible with an early start.

Bled makes a good base for a small country, with Ljubljana under an hour away, medieval Radovljica next door, and Postojna, Predjama and Piran as full days out. The Austrian lakes are close too. The range is good, but the places themselves are smaller, and more of the trips need a car.

Both are calm, safe and easy with children, but the days look different. In Bled they row out to the island, ring the wishing bell, ride the summer toboggan on Straža and walk the gorge, which works well in sunshine but leaves little to do on a wet day.

Lucca's fun comes from riding a family quadricycle around the walls and climbing the tree-topped tower. Pinocchio Park and the beach are each under half an hour away, and Lucca Comics & Games delights teenagers in autumn.

Lucca is easier. Inside the walls you walk or cycle on flat, mostly car-free streets, and the station by the southern gate has regular trains to Pisa, Florence and the coast. A car only helps for the villas and the Garfagnana.

Bled's lakeside is easy on foot. Beyond it, the trailheads, Pokljuka, Vršič and the Soča valley are poorly served by buses, so exploring the Alps usually means hiring a car and fighting for parking by the lake in summer.

Lucca has real streets to browse. Via Fillungo has fashion and jewellery behind Liberty-style shopfronts, and the side lanes have delicatessens for oil, farro and buccellato, while the monthly antiques market around the cathedral is the highlight. It is small-town rather than luxury shopping. Bled has a handful of lakeside stalls selling honey, lace and painted beehive panels, and little else.

Overall costs come out much the same, and in each place the room is the main expense. Bled's lakeside hotels charge for the view and fill up in July and August, so a guesthouse in the surrounding villages, the campsite at the western end of the lake, or a bed in Radovljica or Bohinj brings the bill down. Lucca has few hotels inside its walls, and its B&Bs fill in summer and at festival time, so staying just outside the gates is often the better deal.

How much the days cost differs more. In Bled the lake path, the viewpoints and the mountain trails cost nothing, but the pletna boat to the island, the castle and Vintgar Gorge all charge entry. In Lucca the walls and many churches are free, the paid sights are modest, and trattoria meals and regional trains are fairly priced.

Lucca, as Puccini's birthplace, can put opera into even a short stay. There are aria recitals in a central church for most of the year, a season at the Teatro del Giglio, and in summer open-air Puccini by the lake at Torre del Lago, plus big concerts in Piazza Napoleone.

Bled has no venue of its own. It offers only the odd summer concert in the castle or churches and folk evenings put on for visitors, so for opera or theatre you need to go to Ljubljana.

Bled was built as a cure resort, and it can still offer a warm soak without leaving the lake. In the nineteenth century Arnold Rikli brought guests here for air and sun cures. Several large lakeside hotels have spas and indoor pools fed by the mild springs at the eastern end, and visitors staying elsewhere can sometimes use them as day guests. Beyond that, the calm comes from early walks around still water and very quiet weeks outside the summer peak.

Lucca has no thermal water of its own, so a proper soak means a day out: Montecatini's belle époque spa buildings half an hour away by train, the warm cave pools at Monsummano or the steam grottoes of Bagni di Lucca. In town, you unwind on car-free streets, over long lunches and on the walls at dusk.