Chamonix or Milan?

Neither place is a swimming destination, but Milan offers slightly more. In summer you can swim at the Idroscalo basin or the city's open-air pools, and Lake Como and Lake Maggiore are about an hour away by train, with pebbly lidos and swimming platforms.

Chamonix has its municipal pool and Lac de Passy, a small lake down the valley with a sandy strip and Mont Blanc in view. It is only warm enough for swimming in July and August. Lake Annecy is a good summer day out, but you need a car to get there.

Milan is the far better place to eat. Saffron risotto, ossobuco and cotoletta are the local dishes, and the city also has good cooking from every Italian region and plenty of fine dining. Aperitivo in the Navigli, Brera or Isola turns early evening into its own occasion.

Chamonix's cooking is Savoyard, with fondue, raclette and tartiflette made from alpine cheeses. It tastes best on a refuge terrace facing a glacier. Back in town the menus start to look alike, and many places close between the main seasons. The town's cheese shops and bakeries are best used for picnics.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Milan has a small number of sights, but they are world-class: the Duomo with its rooftop among the spires, the Last Supper, the Brera gallery, Michelangelo's Rondanini Pietà at the Castello Sforzesco and the Ambrosiana's Leonardo drawings. A culture-focused visit can easily fill several days.

Chamonix's heritage is the history of alpinism. The Musée Alpin covers the first ascent of Mont Blanc and the 1924 Winter Olympics, and there is the climbers' cemetery and the old guides' quarter. It is an interesting half-day, but the mountains are the real sight.

Milan offers the bigger and more varied night out. Evenings start with aperitivo along the canals and can carry on in smart Brera bars, the mixed scene around Porta Venezia, dressy clubs near Corso Como or warehouse parties on the city's edge. Dress well, because people dress up for it.

Chamonix's nightlife is mostly winter après-ski, followed by a short lane of pubs in the old town full of guides, seasonal workers and young English-speaking visitors, and a couple of small clubs. It is loud and friendly, but summer nights are quiet and the shoulder seasons quieter still.

Chamonix is in a different league here. The valley sits at the foot of Western Europe's highest summit. In summer it offers glaciers, granite needles, mountaineering, via ferrata and paragliding, and in winter steep skiing and the Vallée Blanche, all reached by lift from town.

Milan itself is flat and often hazy, with Parco Sempione and canal towpaths that lead out into the rice fields. Its outdoor appeal lies an hour north, with lakeside paths and sailing on Como and Maggiore and serious hiking on the Grigne ridges. Every outing there begins with a train.

Milan is the better base for day trips by a wide margin. High-speed trains reach Verona's arena, Turin's Egyptian Museum and Bologna in around an hour. Bergamo, Bellagio, the Certosa di Pavia and Mantua are all easy outings, and there are boats to the Borromean Islands.

Chamonix's choices come from its position near the borders. You can drive through the tunnel to Courmayeur and Roman Aosta, take the Mont Blanc Express to Martigny, or go to Annecy or Geneva. Once you have seen those, most nearby places are other resorts, and mountain roads make every journey slower.

Both work for families, in quite different ways. Chamonix suits active children, with nursery ski slopes, sledging, the summer luge, treetop courses, ibex and marmots at the Merlet park, and the little red train to the Mer de Glace. However, the highest cable cars are unsuitable for small children, and there is little to do on wet days.

Milan has the opposite strengths and weaknesses. Its science and technology museum, with a submarine and hands-on labs, is good in any weather, and Leolandia and Gardaland are within reach for older children. On the other hand, summer humidity is heavy and most of the major sights are aimed at adults.

Chamonix runs on valley buses and a little mountain train, Milan on five metro lines and a dense tram network. In Chamonix the flat centre is easy to walk, the Aiguille du Midi and Montenvers stations are in town, and the guest card makes the buses and the Mont Blanc Express free from Les Houches to Vallorcine. In winter, though, the ski areas are spread along the valley, so ski buses are packed and evening services thin out. You can manage without a car, and parking is tight anyway.

Milan is the smoother place to get about. The colour-coded metro takes a contactless card at the gates, the trams fill the gaps, some of them old orange cars, and the Duomo, Brera and the Castello are a short walk apart. Its weak points are the long transfer from Malpensa and hot, stuffy platforms in summer.

Milan is a shopping destination in its own right. The great Italian fashion houses have flagship stores on Via Montenapoleone and Via della Spiga, La Rinascente stands beside the Duomo, and design showrooms, Corso Buenos Aires and Navigli antique markets add more variety.

Chamonix's strength is narrow but real. Its shops for climbing, ski and technical outdoor gear, some run by the same families for generations, are worth saving a big purchase for. Beyond that, it comes down to cheese, génépi and rock crystals.

Neither is cheap, but Milan is the easier on the budget. Hotels are expensive, especially during trade fairs, yet aperitivo snacks can stand in for supper, office lunch menus are good value and public transport is reasonably priced.

Chamonix adds lift passes, cable cars, guides and paragliding to resort-level room rates. Self-catering, picnics, free valley transport and trails that start from the valley floor all help, as does visiting in late spring or autumn rather than the peak weeks.

For live performance, Milan is in another class. La Scala's opera and ballet season opens each December on the feast of Sant'Ambrogio, and the city also has the Piccolo Teatro, a symphony orchestra, touring musicals and big summer concerts at San Siro.

Chamonix has a summer jazz festival with some sets played high in the mountains, along with church concerts and mountain film evenings. Anyone wanting opera there has to go to Geneva.

Chamonix has the edge for unwinding, as long as you think of rest as the reward after a long day outdoors. Its large day spa has hot outdoor pools looking up at the glaciers, many chalets have their own saunas, and the thermal springs at Saint-Gervais are down the valley. The town itself is busy in high season, so the quiet hamlets further up the valley are calmer.

Milan has a thermal spa complex near the centre and the 1930s Bagni Misteriosi pools for summer afternoons. Most visitors who want real calm take the train to the lakes.