Bologna or Rovinj?

This is Rovinj's clear advantage. Bologna is inland, so swimming means about an hour on the train to the Romagna Riviera. The Adriatic there is warm and shallow, but the shore is lined with organised lidos and rented sunbeds, and the water is often green rather than clear.

Rovinj looks onto much clearer water, and you reach it straight from town. Rock ledges and pebble coves run along the shore into the Golden Cape park, and taxi boats go to St Catherine and Red Island. There is no sand, so pack water shoes. Families who want soft, shallow beaches may find Rimini easier.

Bologna is worth the trip for its food alone, and Rovinj is not. Pasta is rolled by hand in shop windows, mortadella and tortellini in brodo are made with care, and the Quadrilatero is full of delicatessens. Parmigiano and balsamic vinegar are made less than an hour away. The weakness is range: almost everything is Emilian, and the food is heavy in the summer heat.

Rovinj cooks in a lighter, coastal style, with grilled fish, scampi buzara, truffle pasta and Malvazija wine. Often the best meals are at the konobas in the countryside. In town, the harbour menus are written for passing visitors, and cheap everyday eating is hard to find.

In both places the town itself is the main sight, but the scale is very different. Bologna's medieval centre is large and intact. It has the UNESCO-listed porticoes, Piazza Maggiore with San Petronio, the Two Towers, Santo Stefano's seven churches, the Archiginnasio and the Pinacoteca, which together need two or three full days.

Rovinj's old town covers a former island, with Venetian houses climbing to St Euphemia, and it is lovely to wander. Beyond the bell tower climb, the small town museum and the Batana House there is little more, and a slow afternoon covers it.

Bologna has a real night out, and Rovinj mostly does not. Tens of thousands of students fill the cheap bars around Piazza Verdi and the taverns of Via del Pratello until late. Clubbing means a taxi to the edge of town, and the city goes quiet in August.

An evening in Rovinj ends with a cocktail on the waterfront or a drink on the rocks at sunset. The old town is largely asleep by midnight, and outside summer even less goes on.

Rovinj has the better outdoors for most visitors, largely because of the sea. The Golden Cape park starts at the edge of town, with flat paths through pine and cedar. The archipelago is good for kayaking, paddleboarding and diving around reefs and wrecks, and the Lim Fjord is a short drive north.

Bologna's outdoors is the hills: the arcaded climb to San Luca, the Colli Bolognesi, the gypsum caves of the Parco dei Gessi and the Via degli Dei trail to Florence. The Apennines to the south also offer summer hiking and some modest skiing in winter, which coastal Istria lacks.

Bologna is one of Europe's best bases for day trips and wins clearly. Florence is about half an hour away by fast train, and Ravenna, Ferrara, Modena and Parma are short rides. Venice, Verona and Padua are each about an hour and a half away, and none of them needs a car.

Rovinj has a rich little region around it, including Pula's Roman amphitheatre, the mosaics of the Euphrasian Basilica in Porec and the hill towns of Motovun and Groznjan. Almost all of it needs a hire car.

The two are about equally good with children, in opposite ways. Bologna has a flat, largely car-free centre with shady porticoes and easy meals, but its sights are made for adults. Families tend to add a day at Mirabilandia or on the beach at Rimini.

Rovinj gives children the sea, boat trips to the islands, the Golden Cape paths and resorts with pools and playgrounds. On the other hand, the rocky shore needs water shoes and close watching, and the steep old-town cobbles are hard going with a pushchair.

Both are walking towns at heart, but Bologna is far better connected. Its flat centre is easy on foot under the porticoes and buses run up into the hills. The central station sits at the edge of the old town, with trains to much of northern Italy.

Rovinj is just as easy on foot within town, and taxi boats run to the islands. There is no railway, though, and buses only link the larger towns. The hill towns and wineries really need a car, and parking near the old town is tight in summer.

Bologna gives you more to browse. Most visitors take home mortadella and Parmigiano from the Quadrilatero delicatessens. Via dell'Indipendenza has the high-street chains, Via Farini and the Galleria Cavour have a small luxury cluster, and there are markets at the Montagnola and in Piazza Santo Stefano.

Rovinj's shopping is regional produce and art: truffles, olive oil, Teran wine and the galleries and studios along Grisia. It has no fashion streets at all.

Neither is cheap, but Bologna is easier on the budget. Trattorias, aperitivo with food included and free-to-enter churches keep daily spending down. Rooms in the old town are expensive, though, and become scarce during the big trade fairs.

In July and August Rovinj charges what a sought-after Mediterranean resort charges, and the harbour restaurants price for the view. Fish, sold by weight, adds up quickly. Private apartments, campsites and a visit in late spring or September soften the cost.

Here the gap is wide. Bologna is a UNESCO City of Music, with opera, ballet and symphony seasons at the Teatro Comunale, jazz in basement clubs most nights and plenty of student gigs. In summer there are concerts and films in Piazza Maggiore.

Rovinj offers the occasional summer concert in St Euphemia, music on the squares and now and then a performance of bitinada singing. Out of season there is very little. For a big show, people go to the Roman arena in Pula.

Neither has a bathing tradition of its own, so the two are broadly level and the difference lies in the setting. Bologna's calm comes from a long lunch under the arcades. For thermal pools you go a short way out, to Castel San Pietro Terme or to Porretta Terme in the Apennines.

Rovinj relies on its resort hotel spas, but in May, June and September the pace of the town does most of the work, with late swims off the rocks and evening walks in the pines. In high summer the centre is crowded, and you have to go further out for quiet.