Colmar or Padua?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Padua at least has the option. Colmar is hundreds of kilometres from any coast, so swimming means a municipal pool or a cold lake up in the Vosges.

From Padua the Adriatic is about an hour away at Sottomarina or the Venice Lido. The beaches there are flat rows of umbrellas rather than anything scenic, but the water is shallow, calm and warm in high summer.

The two are evenly matched at the table but cook in very different traditions. Colmar's food is the hearty Franco-German cooking of the winstub, with choucroute, baeckeoffe and munster cheese, all built around the great white wines of the slopes outside town, and there is a fine-dining tier along the wine route.

Padua's food is lighter Venetian home cooking, such as bigoli with duck sauce or risotto with peas, bought fresh from the twin markets under the Palazzo della Ragione. The evening spritz ritual and Caffè Pedrocchi give Padua the stronger drinking culture outside meals, while Colmar is the place to go for serious wine.

Padua has the deeper collection. Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel changed European painting, and it sits alongside a UNESCO-listed group of fresco cycles, the pilgrimage Basilica of Saint Anthony with Donatello's bronzes, the world's oldest permanent anatomical theatre and a botanical garden from 1545.

Colmar's strength is how complete it is as a townscape. Its painted half-timbered streets, Petite Venise and the Maison des Têtes hold together as one late-medieval whole, and the Isenheim Altarpiece at the Unterlinden is worth the journey by itself. Both centres can be seen in a couple of days, but Padua gives you more works of the very first rank.

Padua has much more going on after dark. The university fills Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signori with crowds drinking spritz from early evening, and wine bars in the old ghetto stay busy late during term, though clubs are few.

Colmar's evening is a long dinner and a glass of Riesling by the canals, and the streets empty early. Anyone after a real night out ends up taking the train to Strasbourg.

Colmar has the better landscape close at hand. Vine-covered slopes rise straight out of town, and above them the forested Vosges offer glacial lakes, high pastures and the ridge road past the Grand Ballon, with views across to the Black Forest. There is also modest skiing in winter.

Padua sits on a flat plain, so its outdoors means a trip out. The volcanic Euganean Hills about 15km away are good for gentle walks and road cycling, and the Brenta towpaths make level bike rides. Proper mountains are about an hour and a half's drive away.

Both are excellent bases, but Padua has the edge because of where it sits on the rail network. Venice is under half an hour away, Vicenza a quarter of an hour, and Verona, Bologna and Ferrara are easy day trips, all without a car.

Colmar's day trips are mostly smaller in scale: the wine villages of Riquewihr, Eguisheim and Kaysersberg a few kilometres apart, Haut-Koenigsbourg on its ridge, and Strasbourg, Basel and Freiburg within an hour. The villages are much easier to reach by car or bike than by bus.

Colmar works better with children. Within the town there are flat-bottomed boat rides, a little tourist train and storks on the rooftops, and there is a wide spread of attractions nearby: the Hunawihr stork and otter park, free-roaming macaques at Kintzheim, the train and car museums in Mulhouse, and Europa-Park.

Padua is flat, safe and welcoming to children, but its sights are mainly frescoes and churches. Beyond running around Prato della Valle, families end up driving to Gardaland or the Adriatic for the day.

Both centres are easy on foot, and the real difference is what happens beyond them. From Padua's station, fast main-line trains go in every direction, a tram runs into the centre, and arcades give shelter from rain and sun. A car is only needed for the hills.

Colmar's trains reach Strasbourg, Mulhouse and Basel quickly, but the wine villages and the Vosges are poorly served by bus. Most visitors hire a car or a bicycle, and cycling between the vineyards is a pleasure in itself.

Padua offers a bit more range. Its arcaded streets have Italian fashion and shoe shops, the university keeps good bookshops going, and Prato della Valle hosts a large monthly antiques market.

Colmar is mostly about regional things to take home: wine bought from the producer, Soufflenheim pottery, kougelhopf moulds and printed table linen. Its Christmas markets are the highlight of its shopping year.

Padua is the cheaper of the two, mainly because its hotels are a reasonably priced base for a whole region and the walkable centre means transport costs little. A standing spritz and food from the market are inexpensive.

Colmar's meals and wine tastings are fair, but rooms are its weak point. The town is small, and beds near the old town get expensive and book out early in summer and during the Christmas market weeks. Staying in a nearby village helps.

Colmar's stage life comes in bursts, while Padua's runs through the year. Colmar has a small Italian-style municipal theatre where the Opéra national du Rhin tours, but its real musical weeks are the classical festival in early July, the autumn jazz festival and the concerts of the summer wine fair. Outside those, serious opera or orchestral music means going to Strasbourg or Basel.

Padua has a steadier programme. Teatro Verdi stages drama and some opera, the city's chamber orchestra plays in the frescoed Sala dei Giganti and the Basilica of Saint Anthony, and students keep small live-music venues going. For grand opera, the Fenice in Venice and the summer Arena in Verona are both an easy train ride away.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Padua has Abano and Montegrotto about 12km away, where spa hotels let day visitors into thermal pools fed by water that rises from the ground at up to 87°C.

Colmar has no bathing tradition and only hotel spas. Its idea of rest is quiet evenings by the canals and slow walks through the vines.