Bologna or Piran?

Piran is the one for swimming, though not for sand. You climb down ladders and off rocks into clear water right below the old walls. Fiesa's pebble cove is a short walk away, and Portoroz has a small artificial beach with sunbeds.

Bologna has no sea of its own. A day at Rimini's organised lidos, about an hour away by train, gets you out of the summer heat, but the water there is greener and the shore is a long line of umbrellas.

This is where Bologna pulls furthest ahead of Piran. It 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 balsamic vinegar are made less than an hour away.

Piran eats well but within a narrow range: grilled fish, squid and scampi buzara in konobas, with Malvazija, Refosk and olive oil from the hills behind. The harbour menus repeat one another, so a week of seafood suppers here wears thinner than a week at Bologna's tables.

Bologna has two or three days of serious sightseeing. There are the UNESCO-listed brick porticoes, San Petronio and the Two Towers, the seven churches of Santo Stefano, the university's Archiginnasio and a Pinacoteca full of Bolognese painting.

Piran is one lovely day by comparison. Its Venetian Gothic peninsula, the oval Tartini Square and the walls above St George's have atmosphere and fine views. The museums are modest, though: a maritime collection and a small aquarium.

This is the gap between a university city and a seaside town. Bologna's large student population keeps the streets busy well after dinner, even midweek, in cheap and informal bars where most people drink standing outside, with wine bars around Via San Vitale for a slower evening. It is a night out in jeans rather than a dressed-up one, and dancing means a taxi out of the centre. August is the exception, when the students go home and the city falls quiet.

In Piran the sunset is the night out. A drink on the Punta as the light fades over the bay is the high point, and by the hour Bologna gets going the lanes are empty. For anything livelier you go along the shore to Portoroz, where summer brings beach bars and a few clubs.

Both offer gentle outdoors rather than wild country, but of different kinds. Bologna has the green Apennine hills at its back: the walk up to San Luca, the gypsum caves of the Parco dei Gessi, the Via degli Dei trail to Florence and summer hiking on Corno alle Scale.

Piran's outdoors is on the coast. There are the flysch cliffs and clifftop path at Strunjan, wading birds among the Secovlje salt pans, kayaking under the cliffs and the Parenzana cycle route inland. The Skocjan caves are about an hour away. The choice is between hill trails and sea and lagoons.

Both make good bases, but Bologna is exceptional. Its station sits at the rail hub of northern Italy, so Florence is half an hour away and Ravenna, Ferrara, Modena and Parma are easy train rides. Venice and Verona still make a comfortable day out.

Piran's advantage is having three countries close by: Trieste, the Istrian hill towns of Motovun and Groznjan, Rovinj, Predjama Castle and the summer boat to Venice. The difference is that most of this needs a hire car rather than a train ticket.

Neither city is built around children, and they come out about even. Bologna's flat, largely car-free centre and shaded porticoes make walking easy, older children can climb the Asinelli tower, and Mirabilandia is within reach. Summer heat in the city is hard on little ones, though.

Piran swaps sights for the sea, with calm warm water, a car-free town and a small aquarium. Swimming is from concrete ledges and the lanes are steep. It suits a few seaside days, while Bologna suits a short city stay with older children.

In both places you walk once you arrive, but Bologna is far better connected. Its flat centre is lined with porticoes, buses reach the hills, and the main station on the edge of the old town has trains across northern Italy.

Piran's car-free peninsula takes a quarter of an hour to cross, and a shuttle runs to Portoroz. There is no railway and the regional buses are slow, so exploring Istria or the Karst usually means hiring a car.

Bologna has a modest but real range of shops. The Italian chains line Via dell'Indipendenza, a small group of luxury labels sits in the Galleria Cavour, and the vintage stores and bookshops of the university quarter fill a slow afternoon. It is no rival to Milan, but buying clothes, books or a gift is easy.

Piran has almost none of this. Apart from a few craft shops and the souvenir stalls on the harbour, the things worth taking home come from the land and the pans around the town: salt flower from Secovlje, olive oil and coastal wine. For real shopping you would need to cross the border to Trieste.

The two cost much the same, and in both the money goes on rooms. Bologna's trattorias and aperitivo with food stretch a budget, but old-town hotels are expensive and trade fairs make rooms scarce and costly.

In Piran the expensive time is July and August, when old-town rooms are hard to find and waterfront tables charge for the view. Coming out of season or staying in Portoroz keeps costs fair, and swimming and walking cost nothing.

Bologna has a scene all year round. The historic Teatro Comunale stages opera, ballet and concerts, jazz plays in basement clubs most nights, students fill small venues with gigs, and Piazza Maggiore has summer screenings. UNESCO recognises it as a City of Music.

In Piran, music belongs to summer. Tartini is honoured with concerts in churches and the monastery cloister and with open-air performances on the square. Outside the warm months the small Tartini Theatre has little on.

Piran is the calmer place to unwind and has more to offer for it. Next door, Portoroz has a long spa tradition of seawater pools and salt-pan mud, there is an unusual outdoor thalasso spa among the Secovlje lagoons, and the car-free lanes set a slow pace.

In Bologna, relaxing means a long lunch under the arches. Thermal water is a half-day trip to Castel San Pietro Terme or Porretta Terme. The noisy university quarter and the summer heat work against rest.