Bled or Verona?

Both towns are inland and both lakes warm up to about the same temperature in high summer. The difference is distance. In Bled you swim on your doorstep, from the lido below the castle cliff, the shallow end at Velika Zaka or the rocks along the path, and the colder, wilder Lake Bohinj is the alternative.

From Verona, swimming means a car or train ride to Garda's southern shore. There you'll find lidos, pebble coves and Sirmione's limestone shelves, but also narrow beaches that get crowded at weekends. So it works as an occasional outing rather than a daily routine.

Verona is far ahead here. It cooks the hearty food of the Veneto hinterland, such as Amarone risotto, bigoli with duck, pastissada and bollito with pearà, in wood-panelled osterie. Valpolicella, Soave and Bardolino are made just outside town, and the weak spots are mainly the tourist menus around the Arena.

Bled's food comes down to the custard slice on a lakeside terrace, plus trout, žlikrofi and buckwheat dishes in hotels and inns. The best meals are out in the valley farm inns, so anyone who travels to eat will run out of new things to try within a day or two.

These two are very different. Verona packs two thousand years into the loop of the Adige: the Arena and the Roman theatre, the old forum at Piazza delle Erbe, the Scaliger tombs, the bronze doors of San Zeno and Scarpa's Castelvecchio. It deserves two or three unhurried days.

Bled has a single striking scene, the cliff-top castle with its small museum and printing workshop, and the baroque island church you reach by pletna boat. It makes a memorable morning, but anyone after museums or architecture will end up taking a train to Ljubljana.

Neither town is a clubbing destination, but Verona at least has an evening life. Aperitivo crowds fill Piazza delle Erbe and Corso Porta Borsari, Veronetta's student wine bars stay open later, and opera-goers pour out of the Arena near midnight.

Bled's night is a drink on a hotel terrace and a walk along the lit shore, and the village is quiet well before midnight.

This is Bled's great advantage. It sits right at the edge of Triglav National Park. Within half an hour you can reach Ojstrica and Osojnica viewpoints, Vintgar Gorge, the Savica waterfall and the Pokljuka pastures, with multi-day hut routes, canyoning and winter skiing at Vogel beyond.

Verona's outdoors is softer and further away: vineyard walks in Valpolicella, the Adige cycle route, the Lessinia plateau and Monte Baldo's ridges above Garda. It is rewarding, but the high mountains are a long day away.

Both make good bases, but Verona's choice is wider and easier. Trains bring Venice, Padua's Scrovegni Chapel, Palladio's Vicenza and Mantua within an hour or so, and Garda harbours and wine cellars are closer still.

Bled covers a smaller country well: Ljubljana in under an hour, medieval Radovljica nearby, then Postojna cave, Predjama Castle and Piran for full days out, with Austrian Carinthia just through the Karawanks tunnel. Many of these trips work best with a car.

Verona comes out slightly ahead thanks to the big attractions nearby: Gardaland, the water parks and the safari zoo at Parco Natura Viva, all about half an hour away, though they need a car or transfer and summer afternoons are hot.

Bled is the outdoor alternative, with rowing boats to the island, the bell to ring, shallow lidos, and a toboggan run and rope park on Straža hill. With no indoor attractions, a wet day there is harder to fill.

Bled's village is easy on foot because everything lies on the path around the lake. The trouble is that most people come for the Julian Alps, and public transport only gets you so far. Ljubljana and Bohinj are simple enough to reach without a car, but the high plateau, the mountain passes and the Soča valley really need a hire car or a booked transfer. In summer, finding somewhere to park by the lake adds to the hassle.

Verona is the easier of the two. Its sights are close together in a flat centre that is largely closed to cars, so you can walk almost everywhere. Main-line trains from the city station cover most outings, so you can spend a week without a car. You only really miss one for the wine villages and the upland pastures of the Lessinia.

Verona has a real shopping street in the marble-paved Via Mazzini, with smaller boutiques along Corso Porta Borsari, plus Amarone, Garda olive oil and pandoro to take home. It feels smart and provincial rather than a fashion capital.

Bled has lakeside stalls selling honey, lace and painted beehive panels, and little else.

Overall costs are much the same, but you pay for different things. In Bled the expense is lakeside rooms in July and August and fees for the boat, castle and gorge, while the trails and viewpoints are free and a campsite or a room in Radovljica keeps costs down.

In Verona rooms in the historic centre are the main cost, especially on opera nights. Everyday eating in Veronetta, cheap transport on foot and good local wine help balance it out.

Verona has a world-famous stage: grand Verdi and Puccini productions on the stone tiers of the Arena on most summer nights. Add the Teatro Filarmonico's season in the cooler months and Shakespeare and jazz in the Roman theatre.

Bled offers only the occasional concert in the castle or a church and folk evenings for visitors. For a proper performance you have to go to Ljubljana.

Bled has a slight edge because the calm is right there. It has a history as a nineteenth-century health resort, warm springs feed hotel spas on the eastern shore, and early mornings on still water are the whole point of the place, especially outside the summer peak.

Verona's thermal options are out of town, at Sirmione's lakeside spa, the spring-fed park near Lazise and Caldiero. In the city itself, relaxing means long lunches and the Giardino Giusti.