Bologna or Palermo?

Bologna is inland, so the sea means a train of about an hour to Rimini and the organised lidos of the Romagna Riviera, where the Adriatic is warm and shallow but often greenish. It is an escape from the summer heat for a day, not part of the stay.

Palermo has real swimming close at hand. You cannot swim off its harbour front, but Mondello's clear, turquoise bay is a half-hour bus ride, and the coast towards Sferracavallo and Capo Gallo has flat rocks into deep water, so a morning in the sea fits easily between sights.

Both are among Italy's great places to eat, but they eat differently. Bologna is a sit-down city of hand-rolled egg pasta, ragù, tortellini in brodo and mortadella, served in old osterie, with Parmigiano and balsamic vinegar made in towns nearby and an evening aperitivo with Lambrusco.

Palermo eats standing up in the Ballarò, Capo and Vucciria markets, moving from panelle to arancine to sfincione, and its cooking carries Arab traces in raisins, saffron and sweet-and-sour sauces. Add fish by the old port and a serious pastry habit, and it is the lighter, more grazing table. Bologna's is richer and heavier, which can feel like a lot in summer.

The two are well matched but offer different kinds of sightseeing. In Bologna the attraction is the townscape as a whole: an intact medieval centre of red brick and porticoes, the Two Towers, Santo Stefano's cluster of churches and the anatomical theatre of the old university, all easy to absorb in two or three days.

Palermo has more single showpieces. The gold mosaics of the Palatine Chapel and the Arab-Norman churches are unlike anything on the mainland, Serpotta's stucco oratories add a baroque layer, and the Salinas and Palazzo Abatellis museums are stronger than Bologna's. The old centre around them is partly crumbling, while Bologna's is kept in good order.

Evenings are equally lively in both, but the crowd and the season differ. Bologna's nights are run by its students, who fill the cheap bars around Piazza Verdi and the taverns of Via del Pratello, and the city goes almost silent in August once they leave.

Palermo goes out on the street after a late dinner, drinking in the Vucciria market among the grills or in the wine bars of the Kalsa. Summer is its high point, when dancing moves to beach venues around Mondello, and it is winter weeknights that go quiet. Neither city is much for clubs.

Palermo has the more dramatic setting, a bowl of limestone mountains open to the sea. You can climb Monte Pellegrino straight from town, snorkel off Capo Gallo, follow the Zingaro coastal path past coves and dwarf palms, or hike the beech woods of the Madonie, though most of this needs a car.

Bologna's outdoors is gentler. The arcaded climb to San Luca, the Colli Bolognesi and the gypsum caves of the Parco dei Gessi are all close, and the Via degli Dei leaves Piazza Maggiore for Florence. North of the city the flat plain is fine for cycling but has little scenery.

Bologna's rail junction gives it the edge. Florence is about half an hour by fast train, Ferrara, Modena, Parma and Ravenna's mosaics are short regional hops, and Venice, Verona and Padua are close enough for a day, all without a car.

Palermo's list is splendid, from the mosaics of Monreale and the Norman cathedral at Cefalù to the temple at Segesta, hilltop Erice and the Valley of the Temples at Agrigento. But the sites are more scattered, the best of them lie about two hours off, and several are far easier with a hire car than by bus.

Neither city is built around children, but Bologna is slightly easier with them. Its centre is flat, mostly free of cars and shaded by porticoes, climbing the Asinelli tower makes an outing, and Mirabilandia or the beach at Rimini can fill a day.

Palermo has the better treat for young children in Mondello's shallow, sandy bay, and its puppet shows of knights and Saracens appeal to older ones. Day to day, though, narrow lanes without pavements, scooters and uneven stone make the old town hard work with a pushchair.

Bologna is much the simpler city to move around. Almost everything lies in a small, flat centre that is pleasant on foot in sun or rain thanks to the porticoes, and the main station is right on its edge, so trains do the work that a car would elsewhere.

Palermo's main sights are also walkable along Via Maqueda and Corso Vittorio Emanuele, but the side lanes are cramped with scooters and parked cars. Beyond the centre, buses crawl through traffic, driving is stressful, and a hire car is still the practical answer for the countryside.

Bologna has slightly more to offer, mostly to eat. The Quadrilatero delicatessens sell mortadella, aged Parmigiano and fresh tortellini to carry home, Via Farini and the Galleria Cavour hold a compact luxury cluster, and Piazza Santo Stefano has an antiques market on some weekends.

Palermo's fashion streets around Via Libertà are smaller, but its crafts are more distinctive: painted ceramics and moor's-head vases, marionettes from the puppet workshops, and coral jewellery, plus capers and pistachio pesto from the markets.

Palermo is the cheaper stay. A meal can be built from several market stalls, trattorie, wine and pastries cost well below northern prices, and guesthouses in the old centre are fairly priced for most of the year. Costs climb in July and August near the sea, and a hire car adds up.

In Bologna the food is still good value and most sights are free churches and squares, but rooms are priced like the rest of prosperous northern Italy and get scarce during the big trade fairs.

Opera is the common ground: Bologna's Teatro Comunale and Palermo's vast Teatro Massimo both run full seasons of opera, ballet and concerts, so on that front the two are level. What separates them is everything around the opera house.

Bologna, a UNESCO City of Music, has basement jazz clubs playing most nights and a steady run of student indie and rock gigs, with summer concerts and film screenings in Piazza Maggiore. Palermo's own tradition is the Opera dei Pupi, hour-long battles from the Charlemagne legends worked by puppeteers in small family theatres. No Italian is needed to follow them, which is rarely true of a night at the theatre in either city.

Bologna is the easier of the two for unwinding, though neither is a city to pick for rest alone. Its thermal water is close enough to fit around the sightseeing: the spring-fed pools at Castel San Pietro Terme make an easy afternoon, and Porretta Terme in the Apennines is a half day by train. Day to day the centre is the quieter one too, and the shaded porticoes set a slow pace everywhere except the student streets around Via Zamboni.

Palermo makes calm harder to find. A soak in thermal water means a separate outing along the coast to Termini Imerese, and in the old town the scooters and traffic rarely let up. Its quiet comes in particular places, such as the palm garden of the Orto Botanico, a cloister or an evening stroll on the Foro Italico seafront. Rest there comes in short spells, while in Bologna the slower pace lasts through the whole day.