Bled or Milan?

Neither city is on the sea, but Bled has its swimming on the doorstep. From late June to early September you can swim in the lake from the lidos below the castle, the shallows near Velika Zaka or the rocks along the path. Colder, wilder Bohinj is also close.

In Milan, swimming means the Idroscalo basin, the public pools, or a train of about an hour to Como or Maggiore. A swim there is a planned day out, not something you fit in before lunch.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. In Bled you eat kremšnita on a lake terrace, trout, žlikrofi and buckwheat dishes in a few inns, and otherwise hotel dining rooms and pizzerias. The better cooking is out in the farm inns of the valleys.

Milan has its own rich, butter-based cooking of saffron risotto, ossobuco and cotoletta. It also has food from every Italian region, serious fine dining and the ritual of aperitivo in Brera, Isola and along the Navigli. Someone who travels to eat will run out of options in Bled within two days, but not in Milan.

Bled's sights fit into a single day: the clifftop castle with its small museum and printing workshop, the pletna boat to the island church and its wishing bell, and the old spa villas along the shore. They are lovely to look at but slight.

Milan has works of world rank. There is the Last Supper, the Duomo with its rooftop spires, the Brera picture gallery and Michelangelo's Rondanini Pietà in the Castello Sforzesco. Its heritage sits in clusters within a modern city, but there is enough for several full days.

After dinner, Bled offers a drink on a hotel terrace and a walk along the lit shore, and the village goes quiet well before midnight. Milan's evenings start with aperitivo and carry on along the Navigli towpaths, in the relaxed bars of Isola and Porta Venezia, and in the dressy clubs around Corso Como. Anyone in Bled who wants a real night out has to go to Ljubljana.

In Bled the outdoors starts at the hotel door. There is the lake circuit, the steep climb to Osojnica, the Vintgar Gorge walkways and Triglav National Park within half an hour. On top of that come canyoning on the Sava, paragliding, and skiing on Pokljuka and at Vogel in winter.

Milan sits on the flat Po plain, and its green space is Parco Sempione and the canal towpaths. The walking on the Grigne ridges above Lecco or around Como and Maggiore is good, but it takes a train ride to reach. From Milan the mountains are an outing, while in Bled they are all around you.

Both make good bases, but Milan's rail links put much more within reach. Bergamo, Verona and Turin are all about an hour away by train. Bologna, Mantua, the Certosa di Pavia, the Borromean Islands and Lugano are also easy days out, all without a car.

Bled's trips cover a smaller country and often need the road. Ljubljana is under an hour away and Radovljica is next door. Postojna cave, Predjama Castle, Piran on the Adriatic and the Austrian Wörthersee each take a full day, and several are easier with a hire car.

The two are about equally good for children, in different ways. Bled is an outdoor village, with rowing to the island, the church bell, shallow lidos, the toboggan run and rope park on Straža, and a lake path you can push a pushchair along. It has little to fill a rainy day.

Milan has the rainy-day options Bled lacks: the science and technology museum with its submarine, and the small aquarium by Parco Sempione. Theme parks such as Leolandia and Gardaland are also within reach. On the other hand, its summer heat is heavy and its great sights mostly appeal to adults.

In Bled you mostly walk. The village is small and the shore path ties the whole lake together, so for the first day or two a car is of no use. The trouble starts when the plan turns to the mountains. Buses and the Bohinj railway line reach the obvious places, but Pokljuka, the Vršič pass and the Soča valley are poorly served, and most visitors who want them end up hiring a car or booking transfers.

Milan is much easier to manage without a car. You can walk across the centre, and where walking stops, the metro and trams take over and are simple to use from the first morning. Its trains also run straight out to the lakes and towns around it, so you can reach by rail the places that need a hire car from Bled. The main drawbacks are a stuffy metro in high summer and the long trip in from Malpensa.

Milan is a fashion capital. The great Italian houses line Via Montenapoleone and Via della Spiga, there are old shops in the Galleria and La Rinascente beside the Duomo, vintage shops in Porta Ticinese and design showrooms across the city. Bled has a few lakeside stalls selling honey, lace and painted beehive panels, and for anything more you go to Ljubljana. On this count the two cannot really be compared.

A stay in Bled costs less than one in Milan, as long as you stay away from the lakefront. Hotels looking out on the island and the terrace restaurants charge for the view, most of all in July and August. Guesthouses in the surrounding villages, the campsite at the western end of the lake, or a room in Radovljica or Bohinj bring the bill down, and the lake path, viewpoints and trails cost nothing.

Milan is dearer again, with hotel prices high even by Italian standards. Rooms become very hard to find at fair rates during the trade fairs and fashion weeks, and meals in Brera or near the Duomo add up quickly. Aperitivo snacks in place of a light supper, the set lunches aimed at office workers and a room near a metro stop outside the centre all help.

Milan has La Scala, one of the world's great opera houses, whose season opens each December on the feast of Sant'Ambrogio. It also has the Piccolo Teatro, a symphony orchestra at the Auditorium and big summer concerts at San Siro. Bled has no theatre or concert hall, only occasional summer concerts in the castle or churches and folk evenings put on for visitors, so for opera from Bled you go to Ljubljana.

Bled is the better place to slow down. It grew up as a health resort in the nineteenth century under Arnold Rikli, and mild springs at the eastern end of the lake supply the hotel spas. Early walks beside the still water set an unhurried pace, especially outside high summer.

Milan is a working city where you have to look for rest. It has a thermal spa complex south of the centre, a few hotel spas and the 1930s open-air pools of the Bagni Misteriosi. For real calm, most visitors leave for the lakes, which is the kind of quiet Bled has on its doorstep.