Bologna or Saint-Tropez?

Saint-Tropez is the beach destination of the two. Pampelonne has about 5km of fine sand and clear water, with public stretches between the beach clubs. Coves such as Escalet and Cap Taillat are quieter still.

Bologna is inland. A swim means an hour on the train to Rimini or Cervia, where the Adriatic is warm and shallow but lined with rented umbrellas and often greenish. It works as an escape from the city heat, not as the point of the trip.

Food is one of the main reasons to visit Bologna. You get hand-rolled tagliatelle and tortellini in family trattorias, the delicatessens of the Quadrilatero, and Parmigiano, Parma ham and balsamic vinegar from towns close by. There is little choice beyond Emilian cooking, but that cooking is superb.

Saint-Tropez offers Provençal fish, aïoli and rosé, the Place des Lices market, the tarte tropézienne and some good high-end dining. A simple, decent meal is harder to find: many quayside tables trade on the view, and in winter much of the town closes.

Bologna has a whole medieval city to explore. There are the UNESCO-listed porticoes, Piazza Maggiore and San Petronio, the Two Towers, the seven churches of Santo Stefano and the wooden anatomical theatre in the Archiginnasio, enough for two or three full days.

Saint-Tropez has one notable museum, the Annonciade, with its pointillist and Fauvist paintings, plus the citadel and the lanes of La Ponche. That makes a pleasant day, but people come for the setting rather than the heritage.

The two are about equal for going out, but in opposite styles. Bologna's nights are student-led, informal and cheap: crowds outside the bars on Piazza Verdi, small taverns along Via del Pratello and wine bars after aperitivo. It goes on most of the year, though August is very quiet.

Saint-Tropez is all about high-summer glamour. Afternoon beach-club parties at Pampelonne lead to champagne on the harbour, then to a few famous clubs with dress codes that stay open until dawn. Out of season it almost stops, and there is little in the way of everyday bar-hopping.

Saint-Tropez is the better place to be outdoors. The Sentier du Littoral runs past pine-backed coves to Cap Camarat and Cap Taillat, and the Massif des Maures has cork-oak forest. There is sailing on the gulf, snorkelling off the rocky points, and the national park islands of Port-Cros and Porquerolles.

Bologna's landscape is gentler: the arcaded walk to San Luca, the Colli Bolognesi, the gypsum caves of the Parco dei Gessi and the start of the Via degli Dei to Florence. The Apennines further south offer summer hiking, but north of the city the plain is flat farmland.

Bologna is one of Europe's great bases for day trips. Florence is about half an hour by fast train, and Ravenna's mosaics and Ferrara's castle are an hour or less away. Modena and Parma are short hops, and Venice, Verona and Padua are within reach, all without a car.

The outings from Saint-Tropez are smaller, though pleasant: the hilltop villages of Ramatuelle and Gassin, Grimaud's castle, Port Grimaud by boat, wine cellars and a full day on Porquerolles. All of them depend on roads that jam badly in summer.

Neither town is built around children, but Bologna is easier to manage with them. The centre is flat and largely free of cars, the porticoes give shade, pasta and gelato keep mealtimes easy, and climbing the Asinelli tower is an adventure. Mirabilandia and the beach at Rimini fill the gaps.

Saint-Tropez has gently shelving sand at Pampelonne and Gigaro, which suits small children. Beyond that the town is aimed at adults, the prices make long stays hard, and summer traffic wears everyone down. Many families stay in Sainte-Maxime instead and come over by boat.

Both towns are easy to walk, but Bologna is far easier to get out of. Its compact centre can be walked under the porticoes, buses reach the hills, and the central station connects you to much of northern Italy.

Saint-Tropez has no railway and only slow buses, and its main beaches are several kilometres out of town. Most visitors need a car, scooter or taxi, and in July and August the gulf road jams for hours. The passenger boats from Sainte-Maxime and Port Grimaud are often the best way in.

For a town its size, Saint-Tropez has the more striking shopping. The big fashion houses open summer boutiques behind the port, there is plenty of resort wear and jewellery, and old-town workshops still stitch the leather Tropézienne sandal by hand. Much of it closes for the winter.

Bologna's shopping is mostly edible: mortadella, Parmigiano and fresh tortellini from the Quadrilatero. Beyond food there are chain stores on Via dell'Indipendenza, a small luxury cluster in the Galleria Cavour, and bookshops and vintage stores in the university quarter.

Bologna is mid-priced. Eating out costs less than in Italy's main tourist cities and most sights are free, though old-town hotels are expensive and trade fairs push room prices up.

Saint-Tropez is expensive at almost every step: rooms, sunbeds, harbourside meals, even a coffee on the port, with taxis or parking on top. You can keep costs down by staying across the gulf and picnicking from the market, but it is never cheap.

Bologna has a real musical life all year round. There is opera, ballet and symphonic music at the historic Teatro Comunale, jazz in small basement clubs on most nights, student gigs, and outdoor concerts and film screenings in Piazza Maggiore in summer.

Saint-Tropez has open-air summer concerts in gardens and on the citadel, and the costumed Bravade procession each May, but little else. For serious opera or theatre you have to drive to Toulon or Nice.

Neither is a spa destination, and in both towns wellness mostly means hotel spas. Bologna has the edge in thermal water nearby, at Castel San Pietro Terme and the Apennine spa town of Porretta Terme. The city's own pace is relaxed, apart from the noisy university quarter.

How calm Saint-Tropez feels depends on when you go. It is crowded and loud in high summer, but in May, June and September it slows down to long lunches, morning walks to the citadel and pétanque under the plane trees.