Colmar or Verona?

There is no real swimming in Colmar beyond municipal pools and the odd lake up in the Vosges valleys. Verona has no coast either, but Lake Garda's southern shore is about half an hour away. There the water is calm and warm in summer, with lidos, grassy banks and Sirmione's flat rock shelves.

Still, Garda is a day out from Verona, not a beach vacation. If you want the lake every day, stay on its shore instead.

Both cities eat well, and both stick closely to their own region. Colmar's cooking leans Franco-German: choucroute, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée in wood-panelled winstubs, munster cheese from the valleys, and white wines such as Riesling and Gewurztraminer, which you can taste in the cellars nearby.

Verona's table is risotto made with Amarone, bigoli with duck and boiled meats with pearà, alongside the reds of Valpolicella and the evening spritz-and-snack ritual at a bar counter. Neither offers much beyond its regional cooking, and both have tired menus near their most famous sights.

Colmar gives you one complete late-medieval townscape, with painted gables, the Maison Pfister and the canals of Petite Venise. Its single great draw is Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece in the Unterlinden Museum.

Verona goes deeper and further back in time. It has the Roman Arena and theatre, the Scaliger tombs around Piazza dei Signori, the Romanesque Basilica of San Zeno, and Castelvecchio's collection in Carlo Scarpa's setting. Colmar is done in two days. Verona rewards two or three, and gives you more to think about.

Neither is a party town, but Verona keeps going longer. Its aperitivo spills across Piazza delle Erbe, the student wine bars of Veronetta stay busy later in term time, and the opera crowd fills the centre again near midnight in summer.

Colmar's evening is mostly dinner and a last glass near Petite Venise, and the streets go quiet early. For anything livelier you take the train to Strasbourg.

These two are about even, but the landscapes differ. From Colmar you walk up through the vines into the Vosges, rounded, forested mountains with summer pastures, glacial lakes and the Route des Crêtes, with modest skiing in winter and the Black Forest an hour away.

Verona's outdoors centres on Lake Garda. Monte Baldo rises steeply above the water, the wind at the northern end suits sailors and windsurfers, and the Valpolicella hills and the Lessinia plateau are good for gentler walks. In both places a car opens up far more.

Both make fine bases, but Verona's options are bigger. The train takes you to Venice in a little over an hour, to Vicenza's Palladio, Padua's Scrovegni Chapel and Mantua in less, and Garda's lakeside towns and the Valpolicella cellars are close too.

Colmar has Strasbourg half an hour away by train, plus Basel and Freiburg just over the borders. Its real charm is the string of wine villages, Eguisheim, Riquewihr and Kaysersberg among them, but buses between them are thin, so you need a car or a bike.

Families do about equally well in both, and in both cases the big attractions are outside town. From Colmar there are storks and otters at Hunawihr, the macaques and eagle show at Kintzheim, and Europa-Park about an hour across the Rhine, while in town children get boat rides through Petite Venise.

From Verona, Gardaland and the safari section of Parco Natura Viva are each about half an hour away, and the shallow lake is good for swimming. Bear in mind that Verona's summer afternoons are much hotter for small children.

Both centres are small, flat and easy to walk, and neither has a metro. Verona has the edge because its rail line reaches more of what you want to see, with fast trains to Venice, Milan and the lake at Peschiera, and its centre is largely closed to cars.

Colmar's station is closer to the old town, and trains run quickly to Strasbourg and Mulhouse. Away from the rail line, though, the wine villages depend on a car or a bicycle. The vineyard roads make the bicycle option a real pleasure.

For clothes, Verona is the better place. Via Mazzini's marble paving is lined with Italian fashion and accessory labels, with boutiques and jewellers on the streets nearby, though serious shoppers still head to Milan.

Colmar is about craft and food: Soufflenheim pottery, kougelhopf moulds, Alsatian table linen and wine bought straight from the grower. In December its Christmas markets are a reason to visit in their own right.

Overall costs are much the same, and in both towns rooms are the main expense. In Colmar, hotels get scarce and expensive during the Christmas market weeks. In Verona the same happens on summer opera nights and during the big trade fairs.

The savings come in different forms. In the Alsace villages, wine tastings are often free or cheap. In Verona, Veronetta's student osterie and wine counters that serve a snack with your glass keep everyday eating fair.

Verona is far ahead. Grand opera in the Roman Arena on summer nights, with candles lit across the stone tiers, is a reason to plan a whole trip around. In the cooler months the Teatro Filarmonico runs an opera and concert season, and the Roman theatre hosts a summer festival of Shakespeare, dance and jazz.

Colmar has a small Italian-style theatre, a classical festival in July and jazz in autumn. For anything bigger, people go to Strasbourg or Basel.

Neither town has a bathing tradition of its own, but Verona has warm springs within reach. Sirmione has long been a spa town, with thermal pools facing the lake, there is a thermal park near Lazise, and the springs at Caldiero have been used since Roman times.

In Colmar, spa options come down to hotel spas. What it does offer is calm: quiet canal-side evenings and unhurried walks through the vines once the day-trippers have gone.