Bled or Siena?

Neither has a sea, but Bled has a swimmable lake right in the village. From late June to early September you can swim from the lidos below the castle or near Velika Zaka, or swim out to the island, and colder, wilder Bohinj is close by.

In Siena swimming means the pool at your hotel or agriturismo. The Maremma beaches around Castiglione della Pescaia take a full day there and back, so anyone who wants a daily swim is better off at Bled.

Siena is the place to eat well. Pici with duck ragù, cinta senese pork, panforte from pastry shops that go back generations, and Chianti Classico or Brunello by the glass make every meal part of the trip, at their best in the family osterie of the contrade.

Bled has kremšnita on a lake terrace and trout or žlikrofi at an inn, but most of what is on offer is hotel and pizzeria food aimed at day visitors. The better cooking is in the valley farm inns, and after a couple of days most visitors have run out of new places to eat in the village.

Here Siena is far stronger. Its whole medieval centre is a monument in itself. The Palazzo Pubblico with Lorenzetti's Good and Bad Government, the Duomo's inlaid floor and Duccio's Maestà count among the finest art in Italy, and the seventeen contrade give each quarter its own character.

Bled's sights fit into a single day: the clifftop castle with its small museum and printing workshop, the baroque church on the island with its wishing bell, and the old spa villas along the shore. They make a lovely backdrop, but on their own they are not a reason to stay.

Neither is a clubbing destination, but Siena has more going on after dark. Students fill a handful of pubs and wine bars, a glass on the Campo can stretch late into the evening, and around the Palio the contrade dine outdoors and the streets stay full until late.

In Bled the evening is a drink on a terrace and a walk along the lit shore, and the village is asleep well before midnight. Anything livelier means heading to Ljubljana.

Bled is the stronger pick for the outdoors because it has real mountains. The Vintgar Gorge, the steep climbs to Ojstrica and Osojnica, Triglav National Park with Bohinj and the Savica waterfall, hut-to-hut hiking, rafting on the Sava and skiing on Pokljuka and at Vogel are all close at hand.

Siena's countryside is gentler and more pastoral: the bare clay hills of the Crete Senesi, the Val d'Orcia and the white gravel strade bianche, which make it superb for cycling. For walkers who want summits, lakes and wild ground, it cannot match the Julian Alps.

Bled is a good base, but its outings are fewer and farther apart. Ljubljana makes the obvious day out and Radovljica is just down the road, while the Postojna caves and Piran on the Adriatic each take a long day. What Bled offers instead is borders: Austria and Italian Friuli are both within reach, so you can be in another country by lunchtime.

Around Siena the choice is far denser and more varied. Within a short drive you have Florence, the towers of San Gimignano, Etruscan Volterra, the Chianti wine villages and Montalcino's Brunello cellars, with abbeys standing alone among the fields in between, so a week of outings need never repeat itself. Both places link their main city, Florence or Ljubljana, by bus, but the small towns, wineries and farther sights are much easier with a hired car.

Bled is easier with children. The flat lake path suits pushchairs and small bikes, and children get to row out to the island, ring the bell, ride the toboggan run on Straža and swim in summer. Rainy days are the weak spot.

Siena welcomes children in every trattoria, and older ones enjoy climbing the Torre del Mangia, but the steep lanes are hard going with a pushchair and nothing there is built for children. Many families stay at a farmhouse with a pool and come into town for half days.

Both are easy to walk and need a car beyond the centre, but the walking feels quite different. Bled's centre is compact and the lake path is level, with a small tourist train in summer, buses to Ljubljana and Bohinj, and trains from Lesce-Bled. The trailheads, the Vršič pass and the Soča valley are hard to reach without a car.

Siena is car-free inside the walls but stands on three ridges, so expect steep, stepped lanes, with escalators climbing up from the station. Buses are better than the slow trains for reaching Florence, and the hill towns need a hired car, left outside the walls.

Siena has a real, if modest, shopping street in Banchi di Sopra, with Italian shoes, leather and stationery, plus majolica, contrada scarves and a large weekly market by the Fortezza Medicea. Food makes the best souvenir: panforte, pecorino and wine.

Bled has a few lakeside stalls selling honey, lace and painted beehive panels, and little else. Any real shopping means a trip to Ljubljana.

The two cost about the same, and both charge extra for a famous setting. In Bled the lakeside hotels and terraces are where the money goes, while the lake path, the viewpoints and the trails are free. Staying in Radovljica, in Bohinj or at the lakeside campsite brings the bill down.

In Siena rooms inside the walls are scarce, especially around the Palio, and the museum tickets add up, but a simple osteria lunch is good value. An agriturismo outside town is the usual way to save.

Siena has a genuine musical life for a small city. The Accademia Chigiana holds summer concerts in palaces and churches, Siena Jazz adds its own concerts, and the Teatro dei Rinnovati and Teatro dei Rozzi stage drama and music through the winter. For opera, though, you go to Florence.

Bled has no theatre or concert hall, only occasional summer concerts and folk evenings, so a proper performance means a trip to Ljubljana.

In Bled, the rest comes from the lake itself. Early walks around still water, a slow pletna ride to the island and quiet evenings under the castle do most of the work. Several lakeside hotels also have spas fed by the mild springs that once drew guests to Arnold Rikli's nineteenth-century sun and air cures. It is calmest outside the summer peak.

Siena's centre is crowded by day in summer, so for real restoration you head out to the hot springs in the countryside: the travertine pools at Rapolano Terme half an hour east, the steaming medieval bath at Bagno Vignoni and the free white limestone pools of Bagni San Filippo in the woods. Choose Bled for stillness and Siena for thermal bathing.