Bologna or Munich?

Neither is a beach destination, and the difference lies in what kind of water is within reach. From Bologna it is an hour by train to Rimini and the Romagna Riviera, where the Adriatic is warm and shallow in August but the shore is lined with rented umbrellas in organised lidos.

Munich keeps its swimming closer and cooler: gravel banks on the Isar inside the city, and the Starnberger See and Ammersee by S-Bahn, with clear alpine-fed water that stays fresh even in high summer. Bologna offers warm sea, Munich offers cleaner, cooler lakes.

Food is one of the clearest reasons to choose Bologna. This is the home of tagliatelle al ragù, tortellini in brodo and mortadella, cooked in old osterie, with Parmigiano and Parma ham made less than an hour away and the lanes of the Quadrilatero full of delicatessens.

Munich's eating is built around the beer hall and the beer garden: roast pork, white sausage, pretzels and a litre of Helles under chestnut trees, with the Viktualienmarkt for snacks. It is sociable and enjoyable, but a simpler and narrower table than Bologna's, even though neither city offers much depth beyond its own regional cooking.

The two are evenly matched for sightseeing, but they give you different things. In Bologna the city is the sight: a near-intact medieval centre of red brick and UNESCO-listed porticoes, the Two Towers, Santo Stefano and the anatomical theatre of Europe's oldest university, all seen on foot in two or three days.

Munich's strength lies indoors, in royal collections: the Alte Pinakothek and the rest of the Kunstareal, the Residenz, Nymphenburg and the vast Deutsches Museum. Its old town is handsome but much of it was rebuilt after the war, so choose Bologna for the streetscape and Munich for the museums.

Evenings out are similar in energy but not in style. Bologna's nights belong to its students, standing outside cheap bars around Piazza Verdi or moving along the taverns of Via del Pratello, though August goes very quiet. Munich is tidier and more prosperous: the evening often stays in the beer hall, with cocktail and gay bars around Gärtnerplatz and a few serious techno clubs in town for dancing until morning, where Bologna sends you out to the edge of the city.

Munich is far better placed for the outdoors. The Alps rise about an hour south, with hiking around Garmisch and the Zugspitze in summer and skiing in winter, the Five Lakes are made for sailing and cycling, and the English Garden and the Isar paths give the city real green space, down to surfers on the Eisbach wave.

Bologna offers gentler ground: hill walks in the Colli Bolognesi, the gypsum caves of the Parco dei Gessi and the long Via degli Dei trail to Florence. Its Apennines are lower and further off than Munich's Alps, and hot summers limit outdoor days to spring and autumn.

Both are excellent bases, but Bologna has the edge for the sheer number of great towns nearby. Florence is barely half an hour away, Ravenna's mosaics, Ferrara, Modena and Parma are short regional rides, and Verona, Padua and Venice are also within a day's reach.

Munich's list is long too, from Augsburg and Nuremberg to Salzburg and Regensburg, but the classic outing to Neuschwanstein takes around two hours each way. Its excursions mix historic towns with alpine lakes and castles, where Bologna's are mostly art cities and food producers.

Munich is the easier choice with children. It has a large zoo along the Isar meadows, the hands-on sections of the Deutsches Museum, an aquarium in the Olympic Park, lake beaches and beer gardens with playgrounds, all reached on transport that takes pushchairs.

Bologna is welcoming, and its car-free centre and shady porticoes are easy to walk, but little is aimed at children beyond climbing the Asinelli tower, so families tend to head out to Mirabilandia or Rimini. Its summer heat is also harder on small children than Munich's milder summers.

Both have compact, largely car-free old towns, so the difference shows once you leave the centre. Munich's U-Bahn, S-Bahn, trams and buses run as one clean network out to Nymphenburg, the Olympic Park, the airport and the lakes.

Bologna has no metro and relies on buses, but almost everything a visitor wants lies within walking distance under the porticoes, and the central station sits at the edge of the old town. It works well on foot, while Munich reaches further with less effort.

Munich is the stronger shopping city. Maximilianstrasse has the luxury houses and Kaufingerstrasse the department stores. The distinctive buy is Tracht, the dirndls and lederhosen of Bavarian costume made by specialist tailors, which Bologna has nothing to match. In December the Christmas markets add craft stalls.

In Bologna the best buys are things to eat: mortadella, aged Parmigiano and balsamic vinegar from the Quadrilatero. Its fashion streets are pleasant but small. The Montagnola market and the antiques in Piazza Santo Stefano cover something Munich, with few flea markets, does not.

Bologna is the gentler city on the wallet, mainly at the table: trattoria meals, aperitivo with food included and local wine by the glass cost noticeably less than in Munich, and most sights are churches and squares that are free to enter. In both cities, rooms become scarce and costly during the big trade fairs.

Munich is Germany's most expensive city, with hotels dear all year and restaurants charging what you would pay in a Western European capital. The savings there come from beer-hall food, picnics in beer gardens, free parks and lakes, and token museum entry on Sundays.

Munich is one of Europe's great music cities, and the gap here is wide. The Bavarian State Opera in the National Theatre, three orchestras of real standing, the rococo Cuvilliés Theatre and a long-established summer opera festival make it worth planning a trip around a performance.

Bologna has a genuine tradition of its own, with the historic Teatro Comunale, its UNESCO City of Music title, jazz in small basement clubs and summer concerts in Piazza Maggiore. It makes for a good evening out rather than a reason to travel, and in both cities spoken theatre is mostly in the local language.

Munich has a bathing culture that Bologna lacks. The Art Nouveau Müller'sches Volksbad, German public saunas with their infusion rituals and the huge thermal complex at Erding, about forty minutes out, give real options for a slow day.

In Bologna, relaxing mostly means a long lunch under the porticoes or a hotel spa, with the spring-fed pools of Castel San Pietro Terme and the old spa town of Porretta Terme for a calm half day. Munich's English Garden and quiet Sundays also make it easier to unwind than in Bologna's noisy university quarter in the summer heat.