Como or Lyon?

Neither is a beach destination, but in Como you can at least swim from town. The lido beside Villa Olmo has lawns and pontoons, and ferries reach the pebble jetties at Moltrasio and Cernobbio, where the water is more inviting than at the city's southern tip.

Lyon is inland. Its swimming spot is the supervised bathing lake at Miribel-Jonage on the city's edge, and the Rhône quays are for sunbathing only. For clear Alpine water you drive to Annecy or the Lac du Bourget, which takes a whole day. In Como a summer swim fits between lunch and a ferry ride.

Here Lyon is in another league. Its bouchons serve quenelles, andouillette and praline tart with a pot of local red, and set lunches make it easy to eat well. Les Halles Paul Bocuse and the Sunday markets on the Saône and at Croix-Rousse are worth a visit in their own right, with Beaujolais and northern Rhône wines close by.

Como cooks honest Lombard lake food: perch risotto, missoltini and polenta, with a good aperitivo hour around the cathedral. The choice is that of a small provincial city, though, and the lakefront terraces sell the view more than the cooking. The best meals are up the lake or in the hills, so eating well takes some planning.

Lyon covers two thousand years in one city. There are the Roman theatres and Gallo-Roman museum on Fourvière, the Renaissance quarter of Vieux Lyon with its traboules, a major art collection in a former abbey and the Institut Lumière, where cinema began. Seeing it properly takes several days.

Como is worth a day, and it is a good day. It has the marble cathedral, the Romanesque stonework of Sant'Abbondio and San Fedele and the Tempio Voltiano. Terragni's Casa del Fascio is a landmark of Rationalist architecture that architects travel to see.

After dinner Lyon has plenty of places to go, and Como has few. Lyon's students fill the wine and cocktail bars of the Presqu'île and the pubs of Vieux Lyon. The barges moored on the Rhône quays work as bars and clubs, and there is a serious electronic music scene in the warehouse clubs towards Gerland.

In Como an evening means an aperitivo, a long meal and a walk along the lake, with a few bars around Piazza Duomo that close early. Anyone who wants a club night takes the train to Milan.

Como has the grander setting: a deep glacial lake walled in by wooded mountains. The funicular, running since 1894, lifts you to Brunate and the ridge path to the Volta lighthouse, the Via dei Monti Lariani offers longer routes, and you can kayak, sail or paddle from the shore. Road cyclists come for the climb to the Madonna del Ghisallo.

Lyon's outdoors is gentler and more urban: running and cycling on the car-free Rhône quays, boating in the Parc de la Tête d'Or and easy walks in the Monts d'Or. For serious hiking in the Chartreuse or Vercors you need a car and an hour or more of driving.

Both are excellent bases, and Como comes out ahead because so much is a boat ride or a short train journey away. Ferries and hydrofoils run to Bellagio, Varenna and the gardens of Villa Carlotta and Balbianello. Milan's Last Supper and Duomo are about forty minutes away, and Lugano is closer still.

Lyon's day trips are about wine and old towns: Roman Vienne twenty minutes to the south, medieval Pérouges, the Beaujolais villages and, further out, Cluny and Beaune. Annecy is a longer outing of about two hours each way.

Lyon is the easier city with children. The Parc de la Tête d'Or alone fills a day with its free zoo, pony rides and pedalos, and the Musée des Confluences has dinosaur skeletons. On top of that there is an aquarium, Guignol puppet shows and a theme park about an hour away.

Como has boat rides, the funicular and summer paddling at a lido, which young children enjoy, and its flat promenade is easier with a pushchair than Lyon's stepped hill lanes. Beyond that, little is made for children, and the villas and churches are adult visits.

Both centres are flat and easy to walk. Lyon adds four metro lines, trams, funiculars up to Fourvière and a bike-share scheme on the riverside paths, all on one ticket system, so you never need a car.

Como's old town is easy on foot and its trains to Milan and Lugano are quick, but going up the lake is slow. The ferries take a long time to go far, the narrow shore roads clog in summer and parking in the centre is hard.

Both were silk-weaving cities, but Lyon has far more on offer around its silk. There are chains on the rue de la République, luxury labels near Place des Jacobins and a large mall at Part-Dieu. Croix-Rousse has designer workshops, the rue Auguste Comte has antique dealers, and there are chocolate, pralines and cheese to take home.

Como is narrower and more focused. The reason to shop here is silk: scarves, ties and fabric from old-town specialists and the mill outlets, plus a short run of boutiques on Via Vittorio Emanuele II. For serious fashion shopping, people go to Milan.

Neither is cheap, but Lyon makes a budget go further. Its hotels are reasonable for a large Western European city, except during trade fairs and the Fête des Lumières. Set lunches in the bouchons are generous, and the zoo is free.

Como's lake draws a luxury crowd, and the summer villa hotels and lakefront tables are priced for it. It helps to stay back from the water, eat in the old-town trattorias, travel by train and ferry and come in spring or autumn.

Lyon has a full stage calendar. The glass-vaulted Opéra houses an opera company and a ballet, the Orchestre National plays at the Auditorium and the Célestins is a grand old playhouse. Dance is the city's speciality, at the Maison de la Danse and the Biennale, and in summer the Nuits de Fourvière puts concerts and theatre in the Roman theatres above the city.

Como has the elegant Teatro Sociale, with summer shows in its open-air Arena and chamber concerts in churches and villas. These make lovely evenings, but on many nights nothing is on, and music lovers go to La Scala in Milan.

Neither city has thermal springs, and in both the spas are mainly in hotels or small day spas, so the difference is the kind of calm on offer. Como relaxes you through its setting: still water, gardens down to the shore, slow ferries and villages that go quiet early, with the best spas in the grand villa hotels.

Lyon's calm belongs to the city: long lunches, Sunday mornings by the Saône, hammams and an open-air pool on the Rhône quays. For real thermal bathing it has Aix-les-Bains, an easy day trip away.