Bologna or Interlaken?

Neither is a place for a beach vacation, and the swimming each offers is quite different. From Bologna, a swim means a day out on the Adriatic, about an hour by train to Rimini or Cervia. The water there is warm and shallow, but the shore is lined with rows of rented sunbeds.

Interlaken has its water on the doorstep. Lake Thun has grassy lidos and shingle beaches, and Lake Brienz is a glacial turquoise. Both are swimmable only in July and August and always feel cool, but you swim under snow peaks.

Food is one of the widest gaps between the two. Bologna is the home of tagliatelle al ragù, tortellini in brodo and mortadella. Pasta is rolled by hand in shop windows, the Quadrilatero is full of delicatessens, and Parmigiano and Parma ham are made less than an hour away. Its only weakness is the thin choice beyond Emilian cooking.

Interlaken feeds visitors reliably with fondue, rösti and raclette, plus a run of international places, but little is worth travelling for. Its best meals are on hut terraces above Grindelwald or Mürren, and many visitors get by on supermarket picnics.

Bologna is a sightseeing city in its own right. It has a whole medieval centre in red brick, the UNESCO-listed porticoes, the Two Towers, the seven churches of Santo Stefano and the anatomical theatre in the Archiginnasio, enough to fill two or three days.

Interlaken has almost nothing to match it. A stroll past the grand hotels on the Höheweg and the timber houses of Unterseen is quickly done. For museums or historic streets you take the train to Bern or Thun.

Bologna goes out properly, thanks to its students. Crowds spill out of cheap bars around Piazza Verdi, Via del Pratello stays lively until late, and many evenings open with aperitivo and wine bars near the Quadrilatero. The exception is August, when the city empties.

In Interlaken people go to bed early for the morning train or hike. A few backpacker pubs and basement clubs, the casino in the Kursaal and a drink on the Höheweg are about all there is, and the streets are quiet well before midnight.

Here Interlaken is in a different class. The Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, the Lauterbrunnen waterfalls, the Aletsch glacier seen from the Jungfraujoch and the high trails around Mürren are all within an hour by rail. Paragliding, canyoning, rafting and winter skiing all run straight from town.

Bologna's outdoors are gentler. There is the walk up to San Luca, the Colli Bolognesi and the gypsum caves of the Parco dei Gessi. Keen walkers can take the Via degli Dei to Florence, and there is modest skiing at Corno alle Scale.

Both make good bases, but Bologna sits at the main rail junction of northern Italy, and that puts more great places within reach. Florence is barely half an hour away. Ravenna's mosaics, Ferrara, Modena and Parma are short rides, and Venice, Verona and Padua are easy in a day.

Interlaken's outings mix towns with lakes. Bern is under an hour away, paddle steamers stop at the castles of Thun, Spiez and Oberhofen, Ballenberg has its open-air museum, and Lucerne lies over the Brünig Pass. It is a good list, though shorter and quieter than Bologna's.

Interlaken is the better choice with children, because its main attractions are fun for them too. There are rack railways, gondolas, steamers, playgrounds at the summit stations, toboggan runs, the St Beatus caves and the farm animals at Ballenberg. Wet days, and high altitudes with very young children, are the catches.

Bologna is easy and welcoming, with a flat, mostly car-free centre and simple mealtimes, but its sights are aimed at adults. Families tend to head out to Mirabilandia or the beach at Rimini, and the summer heat tires small children.

Both are easy without a car, but in different ways. Bologna is a walking city. Its small, flat centre holds almost everything, the porticoes give shelter, and there is no metro. The station at the edge of the old town is your gateway to the rest of the north.

Interlaken itself is a twenty-minute walk from one station to the other. Its strength lies beyond the town, where mainline trains, narrow-gauge mountain railways, cog lines, gondolas and lake steamers connect neatly across the Jungfrau region. The most popular mountain trains can be crowded in summer.

Bologna is better for browsing, though food is still what most people take home: mortadella, aged Parmigiano and balsamic vinegar from the Quadrilatero. There is also a small cluster of luxury fashion on Via Farini and in the Galleria Cavour, and vintage stores and bookshops in the university quarter.

The shops on Interlaken's Höheweg are aimed at tour groups, selling watches, army knives, cuckoo clocks and chocolate, plus outdoor gear for anyone who arrived underprepared. Woodcarving from Brienz is the one local craft worth seeking out.

Neither is cheap, but the gap is wide. Bologna is mid-priced for Western Europe. Trattoria meals are good value, aperitivo often comes with food, and most churches and squares are free to enter. Rooms are the expensive part, especially during the large trade fairs.

Interlaken charges full Swiss prices for beds, meals and drinks. The mountain railways and cable cars that make a stay worthwhile, the Jungfraujoch above all, add a great deal more. Hostels, picnics and transport passes help, but only so far.

Bologna has a real music scene. The historic Teatro Comunale stages opera, ballet and symphony concerts, and jazz has a long tradition in small basement clubs. Students keep gigs going in social centres, and in summer there are concerts and films in Piazza Maggiore.

Interlaken's offering is seasonal and folkloric. Local amateurs perform Schiller's William Tell in the open air each summer, there are yodelling and alphorn evenings for visitors, and the Kursaal holds the odd concert. For a proper orchestra you go to Bern.

Neither has a bathing tradition of its own, and both rely on hotel spas, so the difference is in the kind of calm each offers. From Bologna, thermal springs are a short trip away at Castel San Pietro Terme or in the green valley of Porretta Terme. In the city itself, rest means a long lunch under the arcades.

Interlaken's restful side is the scenery: early mornings on the lakeshore, slow steamer crossings and nights up in Wengen or Mürren, away from the coach groups in the town centre.