Bologna or Rome?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Rome is the better bet for a swim. Ostia's dark volcanic sand is about half an hour away by suburban train, with free beach towards Castel Porziano and a calmer feel at Fregene.

From Bologna the sea means an hour's train ride to Rimini or Cervia. There you find the Adriatic's rows of sunbeds in organised lidos, shallow and warm but usually green rather than clear. From either city, prettier water needs a proper excursion, to Sperlonga in Rome's case.

These are two of Italy's great eating cities, but they cook in different ways. Bologna is the home of rich egg pasta: tagliatelle al ragù, tortellini in brodo and lasagne verdi, with mortadella and Lambrusco alongside. Parmigiano and Parma ham are made less than an hour away, and the Quadrilatero lanes are a working food market.

Rome eats more simply and more on the move. Carbonara and cacio e pepe, Jewish-style artichokes in the Ghetto and offal in Testaccio sit alongside pizza al taglio and supplì eaten on foot. Bologna's weakness is a narrow range and heavy summer dishes. Rome's is the tourist menus around the big sights.

Bologna's appeal is the city as a whole: miles of UNESCO-listed porticoes, the Two Towers, the seven churches of Santo Stefano and the anatomical theatre of Europe's oldest university. It is a rewarding place, and you can see it well in two or three days.

Rome works on another scale. The Colosseum, the Forum, the Pantheon, St Peter's and the Vatican Museums would each anchor a trip on their own, and Caravaggios hang in ordinary parish churches. Here the difficulty is choosing what to skip, not finding enough to see.

A night out is equally good in both cities but has a different crowd. Bologna's evenings are run by students: cheap bars around Piazza Verdi, late taverns on Via del Pratello, and real clubs only by taxi to the edge of town. August goes very quiet once the university empties.

Rome's nights are spent outdoors in the piazzas. Trastevere's wine bars fill up, Monti has smaller cocktail bars and Pigneto draws an arty crowd. Testaccio and Ostiense have some clubs, but in both cities a long dinner and a drink outside matter more than dancing.

Rome has a little more green to offer. The villa parks of Borghese, Pamphili and Ada are inside the city, and the Appian Way makes a fine bike ride past tombs and aqueducts. The crater lakes of Albano and Nemi lie in the chestnut woods of the Alban Hills.

Bologna's countryside is closer to the walls. The San Luca climb and the Colli Bolognesi start at the edge of the centre, the Parco dei Gessi has gypsum caves, and the Via degli Dei walks over the Apennines to Florence. North of the city, though, the land is flat farmland.

Both are excellent bases for day trips, but the trips are different. From Bologna, the junction of northern Italy's railways, you can ride straight to one historic city after another: Florence in half an hour, Ravenna's mosaics, Ferrara, Modena and Parma along the Via Emilia, and Venice or Verona within about an hour and a half.

Rome's excursions lean towards antiquity and hill towns. Ostia Antica, Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este at Tivoli are close by, with the Etruscan tombs of Tarquinia and cliff-top Orvieto further out. Pompeii is possible in a long day.

Neither city is built for children, and each has its own small advantages. Bologna is flat, largely free of traffic and shaded by its porticoes, which makes it easy with a pushchair, but it has no zoo. Families usually head out to Mirabilandia or the beach at Rimini.

Rome has more to capture young imaginations, including gladiators, catacombs, the Bioparco and rowing boats in Villa Borghese. But the queues, cobbles and traffic make each day of sightseeing more tiring.

Bologna is the easier city to get around. Its centre is small and flat, you can walk most of it under the porticoes in any weather, and the main station sits at the edge of the old town.

Rome is walkable in its historic heart too, from the Colosseum to Piazza Navona and Trastevere. Beyond that it gets harder. The few metro lines barely reach the core, buses and trams get stuck in traffic, and cobbles and scooters wear you down. In neither city is a car worth having.

Rome is the stronger shopping city. The fashion houses on Via Condotti and the streets around the Spanish Steps lead the way. Monti has young designers and vintage, Via Margutta and Via dei Coronari keep artisan workshops, and Porta Portese holds a huge Sunday flea market.

In Bologna, the best things to take home are edible: aged Parmigiano, mortadella and balsamic vinegar from the Quadrilatero delis. Its luxury cluster on Via Farini and in the Galleria Cavour is refined but small.

Bologna is the cheaper of the two, though neither is cheap. In Bologna you save on food and sights: trattoria meals and aperitivo cost less than in Rome, and nearly every sight is a free church or square. Rooms are the catch, especially when a big trade fair fills the city.

Rome's centre has smaller, pricier rooms, and the Vatican, Colosseum and Borghese all charge hefty entry fees. Standing espresso, pizza al taglio and free water from the fountains soften the daily spend.

Rome has the edge for music, largely because of its settings. Summer opera at the Baths of Caracalla is hard to match, and the Santa Cecilia orchestra plays at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, alongside jazz and world music.

Bologna, a UNESCO City of Music, has a richer scene than its size would suggest. There are seasons at the Teatro Comunale, basement jazz clubs and student gigs, plus summer screenings in Piazza Maggiore. Theatre in both is in Italian.

Thermal water lies just outside both cities rather than in them. Bologna's nearest springs are at Castel San Pietro Terme, twenty minutes away, and Porretta Terme is an old spa town in a green Apennine valley about an hour south by train. Rome has the sulphurous outdoor pools of Bagni di Tivoli, and about ninety minutes north there are free open-air hot springs around Viterbo.

Day to day, Bologna's relaxed pace and shaded arcades are more restful than Rome's loud, scooter-filled centre, although Bologna's university quarter is noisy too. In Rome, the quiet places are the villa gardens and the Aventine hill.