Bologna or Zermatt?

Neither city is a place for a beach vacation, but from Bologna you can at least reach the sea on a day out. Rimini and the Romagna Riviera are about an hour away by train, with shallow, warm Adriatic water and long rows of organised lidos.

Zermatt has nothing like that. Its mountain tarns are fed by meltwater and are for photographing with the Matterhorn reflected in them, not for swimming. The only swimming there is in a hotel pool.

Food is one of the main reasons to choose Bologna. This is where tagliatelle al ragù, tortellini in brodo and mortadella come from, served in old osterie and sold in the delicatessens of the Quadrilatero. Parma ham, Parmigiano and balsamic vinegar are made less than an hour away.

Zermatt's best eating is up on the mountain, at long terrace lunches in chalets around Findeln and Zum See with raclette, air-dried beef and good Valais wine. In the village the choice is narrower, cheap meals are hard to find, and many kitchens close between seasons.

Bologna's red-brick medieval centre is a sight in itself. It has kilometres of porticoes, Piazza Maggiore with the unfinished San Petronio, the leaning Two Towers, the seven churches of Santo Stefano and the anatomical theatre of Europe's oldest university. Seeing it properly takes two or three days.

Zermatt's heritage is about mountaineering: the underground Matterhorn Museum, the climbers' graves by the parish church and the larch-wood granaries of the Hinterdorf. It is moving, but it fits into a morning.

Bologna's tens of thousands of students keep its nights busy. Crowds gather outside the bars of Piazza Verdi, Via del Pratello has small taverns that stay open late, and the evening often starts with aperitivo in the wine bars around the Quadrilatero. In August, when the students leave, it goes quiet.

Zermatt's nightlife is winter après-ski: slope-side bars full of ski boots, then a few bars and small clubs on the main street. It is cheerful and costly. In summer the hikers have early starts and are in bed after dinner.

Zermatt offers some of the most dramatic high-mountain country in Europe. The Matterhorn rises straight above the streets, dozens of four-thousand-metre peaks surround the valley, and lifts climb to the Gornergrat and the Glacier Paradise. That means skiing across into Italy in winter and hundreds of kilometres of trails, marmots and ibex in summer.

Bologna's outdoors is gentler. You can walk up to San Luca, explore the Colli Bolognesi and the gypsum caves of the Parco dei Gessi, or set off on the Via degli Dei to Florence. For bigger mountains you have to travel an hour and a half to Corno alle Scale.

Bologna sits at the main rail junction of northern Italy, which makes day trips one of its great strengths. Florence is barely half an hour away. Ferrara, Modena, Parma and Ravenna are short regional rides, and Verona, Padua and Venice all make comfortable days out.

From Zermatt, every outing starts with the long narrow-gauge train down to the Rhône valley. Sion's castle hills and Brig's Stockalper Palace are worthwhile, but most visitors sensibly spend their spare days higher up in the mountains instead.

Both are easy with children, but in different ways. In Bologna, the flat, largely traffic-free centre and the shaded porticoes make walking simple, pasta and gelato make mealtimes easy, and climbing the Asinelli tower is a small adventure. For more, families head to Mirabilandia or the beach at Rimini. The summer heat is hard on little ones.

Zermatt has no cars at all, plus ski schools and nursery slopes at Sunnegga, marmots to spot and cog railways to ride. On the other hand, rainy days are hard to fill and the thin air at the top viewpoints can be too much for small children.

In both places you leave the car behind and walk. Bologna's compact centre is flat and largely closed to traffic, with no metro but buses up into the hills. The main station sits at the edge of the old town, with fast trains across northern Italy.

Zermatt is closed to ordinary cars altogether: you park in Täsch and take the shuttle train up. Once there, electric taxis, a funicular, the cog railway and gondolas do the rest. Hotels up on the slopes mean a steep walk with luggage, and leaving the valley takes over an hour.

In Bologna the best things to take home are edible: aged Parmigiano, mortadella and balsamic vinegar from the Quadrilatero. Via Farini and the Galleria Cavour gather the luxury fashion houses, and there is browsing at the Montagnola market, the Santo Stefano antiques fair and the bookshops of the university quarter.

Zermatt's single main street sells Swiss watches, jewellery and Matterhorn souvenirs. It also has good ski and climbing outfitters, but no market and almost no independent shops.

Bologna is mid-priced for Western Europe. Eating out costs less than in Italy's main tourist cities, aperitivo often includes food, and most churches and squares are free. Hotel rooms are the expensive part, especially during the big trade fairs.

Zermatt is expensive even by Alpine standards. Plain hotels, terrace meals and the lift passes every visitor needs all cost a lot. Self-catering, picnics and staying down in Täsch help, but they will not turn it into a budget vacation.

Bologna offers far more to hear and see. The Teatro Comunale stages opera, ballet and symphonic concerts, small basement clubs play jazz most nights, and students fill small venues for indie and rock gigs. Summer brings open-air concerts and film screenings to Piazza Maggiore, and the city is a UNESCO City of Music.

Zermatt has no theatre or concert hall. Its calendar depends on two festivals: Zermatt Unplugged in spring and a late-summer chamber music festival in the village church. The rest of the year, live music means an après-ski band.

Zermatt is the better place to unwind, thanks to a large number of excellent hotel spas with pools, saunas and mountain views. Some of them sell day passes, and the car-free streets and clear air make the village feel calm outside the peak weeks.

Bologna's relaxation is a long lunch under the arcades. For thermal water you go out of town, to the spring-fed pools of Castel San Pietro Terme or the old spa town of Porretta Terme. The noisy student quarter and the heavy summer heat work against a slow stay.