Como or Nice?

Como has lidos rather than beaches. You swim from lawns and pontoons, such as the lido beside Villa Olmo, or from small pebble strands at Cernobbio and Moltrasio that you reach by ferry, and the season lasts barely three months. It is a welcome dip on a hot afternoon, not a reason to go.

Nice has 7km of pebble shore right in front of the city, with clear sea that is warm enough for swimming from June into October. The sandy bays at Villefranche, Beaulieu and Juan-les-Pins are easy to reach. You will want water shoes or a rented lounger on the stones, but here the beach can carry a whole vacation.

Como serves Lombard lake and mountain cooking: perch risotto, missoltini (sun-dried shad), polenta with valley cheese, and a reliable aperitivo on the squares by the cathedral. The choice is what you would expect in a small provincial city, and the best meals tend to be up the lake or in the hills.

Nice cooks with more character and more variety. Socca hot from the wood ovens of the old town, pissaladière and pan bagnat give it real street food. The Cours Saleya market is good for picnics, and Bellet wine comes from the hills above the city. Both cities share the same trap: skip the terraces with the best views.

Como can be seen in a day, but what it has is good. There is the marble cathedral, the Romanesque churches of San Fedele and Sant'Abbondio, the Tempio Voltiano on the shore, and Terragni's Casa del Fascio, which architects travel specially to see.

Nice gives you two or three full days, and art makes the difference. The Matisse Museum among the Roman ruins of Cimiez, the Chagall Museum and MAMAC add a modern art collection that Como cannot match. Around them are the baroque lanes of Vieux Nice, the Russian Orthodox Cathedral and the Belle Époque villas.

In Como a night out means an aperitivo, a long dinner and a stroll by the lake, with a few wine bars near Piazza Duomo and little open late. Anyone who wants a club takes the train to Milan. Nice has clearly more going on, with pubs and cocktail bars filling the lanes of the old town, bars at the port and beach clubs in summer, although people head to Monaco or Cannes for proper clubbing.

Both cities sit where mountains meet water, and both are excellent bases for time outdoors. Como's is a lake landscape. The funicular climbs to Brunate for the ridge walk to the Volta lighthouse, the Via dei Monti Lariani runs above the western shore, the water is calm for paddling, and cyclists ride up to the Madonna del Ghisallo chapel.

Nice adds the sea and a wider range. There are coastal paths around Cap Ferrat, diving, the red rocks of the Esterel, the Mercantour with its ibex about two hours inland, and skiing at Isola 2000 in winter. In both places, spring and autumn are the best seasons for walking.

These are two of the best bases in Europe for excursions, but the trips are different in shape. From Como you go by boat to Bellagio, Varenna and the gardens of Villa Carlotta and Balbianello, or by train to the Last Supper in Milan, to Lugano and to Bergamo. One stay gives you lakes, villas and a great city.

Nice lines its outings up along a coastal railway: Villefranche, Monaco, Menton and Antibes, with buses up to Èze and Saint-Paul-de-Vence and inland to Grasse. Here the appeal is a string of very different small towns and art museums, all reachable without a car, with Sanremo across the Italian border as well.

Neither city is built around children, but Nice gives them more to do. Como has the funicular, the ferry rides and a summer lido, and after that mostly churches and villas aimed at adults. Nice has the playgrounds and water jets of the Promenade du Paillon, the animals at Parc Phoenix, a flat promenade for bikes and Monaco's Oceanographic Museum close by. Against that, its beaches are stony and its summers are hot and crowded.

Both centres are flat and easy on foot, and in both places a car only helps if you are going into the mountains. Como's weak point is the lake itself. Ferries reach every village but take a long time to go far, and the shore roads clog in summer, although the trains to Milan and Lugano are quick.

Nice is simpler to manage. The tram runs from the airport through the centre to the port, buses climb to Cimiez, and regional trains reach Monaco, Antibes and Cannes in well under an hour, even if they are packed in summer.

Como has one thing to buy and does it well: silk, from specialists in the old town and mill outlets on the edge of the city. Beyond that there is a short run of boutiques on Via Vittorio Emanuele II, and serious shoppers go to Milan.

Nice has more range within the city. There are chain stores on Avenue Jean Médecin, luxury houses around rue Paradis, and olive oil, soaps and Provençal fabrics in Vieux Nice, while the Cours Saleya becomes an antiques market on Mondays.

In Como the money goes on the lake. Summer rooms on the shore and villa rentals are priced for an international luxury crowd, and the lakefront restaurants charge for the view. A room in the old town or back from the water, dinner at a trattoria in the hills and the cheap trains and ferries bring the bill down a good deal.

In Nice the cost falls on the seafront instead, where hotel rooms from June to September and private beach loungers add up fast. It is slightly easier to keep in check. Socca, market picnics, simple lunch menus, low-cost city museums and the trams and coastal trains all help. In both cities, spring and late autumn are noticeably kinder to the budget.

Como's stage is the Teatro Sociale, which shares opera productions with other Lombard houses and moves to the open-air Arena in summer. Chamber concerts in churches and lakeside villas add to the programme. For anything bigger, La Scala is a short train ride away.

Nice has a fuller calendar. The Opéra de Nice has its own philharmonic, the Nice Jazz Festival, one of Europe's oldest, comes every July, and the February Carnival brings parades and flower battles. Even so, neither city's programme is a reason to choose it on its own.

Como is the quieter retreat. Still water, gardens that slope down to the shore and villages where the evening ends early make it restful, especially in spring and autumn when the lakefront empties. For treatments you rely on the grand villa hotels and a few day spas in town.

Nice relaxes in a more sociable way: an early swim before the shore fills, a long lunch, then a walk along the promenade as the light fades over the bay. The thalassotherapy centres along the coast towards Monaco and Antibes give it a seawater option that Como lacks. Out of season it is mild and calm, but July and August bring heat and crowds.