Como or Pula?

Swimming in Como is a summer bonus. You go to lidos with lawns and pontoons, such as the one by Villa Olmo, or to pebble jetties up the lake at Moltrasio and the Tremezzina. The water at the city end is not especially inviting.

Pula is a real seaside base. There is no sandy beach, and you will want water shoes, but the clear water, pine-shaded rocks around Verudela and Stoja and the wild coves of Kamenjak give you a proper swimming summer. Families can head for the gentler bays at Medulin.

Pula eats a little better, thanks to Istria's distinctive kitchen of truffle pasta, scampi buzara, pršut and estate olive oil, with Malvazija and Teran to drink. The market hall shows what is in season. Como offers Lombard lake cooking, such as perch risotto, missoltini and polenta, along with a good aperitivo on the squares around the cathedral. Its choice is that of a small provincial town.

In both places the best meals are found away from the famous sights. In Como that means trattorias in the hills, and in Pula the family taverns of the hinterland villages.

For sightseeing, Pula offers more, mainly because Como has nothing to match its Roman remains. Como's walled old town still fills a rewarding day. There is the marble cathedral under its Baroque dome, the Romanesque churches of San Fedele and Sant'Abbondio, and Terragni's Casa del Fascio, which architects travel from abroad to see. The Volta temple and the silk museum on the shore complete the visit.

In Pula, the Arena still stands to its full three storeys above the harbour. Around it, the Temple of Augustus on the Forum, the Arch of the Sergii and the mosaics tucked into backstreets let you walk through a Roman town. The Venetian fortress and the Austro-Hungarian naval forts add later chapters, and together they are enough for a second day.

Neither is a place for a night out, but Pula has a little more life in summer. Drinks on the Forum lead on to beach bars on Verudela and around Medulin, and a few small clubs fill up at weekends. Como's evening ends after the aperitivo, dinner and a stroll along the lakefront, and anyone wanting to dance takes the train to Milan.

Como is the more dramatic place outdoors. Steep wooded mountains rise directly from a glacial lake, and the old funicular to Brunate puts ridge paths, the Volta lighthouse and the Via dei Monti Lariani within minutes of town. Cyclists ride the Triangolo Lariano, and the water is busy with sailing and paddleboards.

Pula's landscape is low, stony and Mediterranean. The highlights are Cape Kamenjak's car-free cliffs, dinosaur footprints and islets, along with sea kayaking and wreck diving. For real hiking you have to drive to the Učka range.

Both make good bases, but Como's list is longer and easier to reach. Ferries go to Bellagio, Varenna and the gardens of Villa Carlotta and Balbianello, while trains bring the Last Supper in Milan, the lakefront at Lugano and Bergamo's upper town within easy range.

From Pula you can tour Istria: Rovinj on its peninsula, the mosaics of the Euphrasian Basilica at Poreč, the hill towns of Motovun and Hum, and the Brijuni islands by boat. Most of these need a car, because buses are sparse.

Pula is the easier choice with children. It has shallow bays at Medulin and Premantura, an aquarium inside an old fort, and the Arena's underground passages to explore, with a dinosaur park and a water park within an hour. Como gives children boat rides, the funicular and a paddle at the lido. Beyond those it offers little made for them, and most of its villas and churches are aimed at adults.

You can manage Como entirely on foot, by train and by boat. The flat old town and lakefront are easy to walk, the funicular lifts you to the hills, and trains reach Milan and Lugano quickly. Ferries call at every village on the lake, though the slow boats take their time. In summer the narrow shore roads clog, so a car is more trouble than help.

Pula's centre is just as compact, with the Arena, the Forum and the harbour minutes apart on foot, and city buses run out to Verudela. Beyond that, the slow railway and sparse regional buses mean you need a car or scooter for Kamenjak, the hill towns and the wider coast.

Como has something genuinely its own to buy: silk. You will find scarves, ties and fabric in old-town specialists and at mill outlets on the city's edge, plus a short run of Italian boutiques on Via Vittorio Emanuele II. In Pula, the things worth taking home are olive oil, truffle products, wine and honey from the market hall and from producers in the countryside.

Pula is the cheaper of the two. Private apartments and simple konobas keep a stay reasonable, though rooms in July and August approach Western European levels, and car hire and boat trips soon add up.

Como attracts an international luxury crowd, and lakeside hotels, villa rentals and waterfront restaurants are expensive. Staying back from the water, eating in old-town trattorias and travelling by the cheap trains and ferries all help, and spring and autumn are kinder on the budget.

The two are about level, but the experience is different. Como has a real opera house in the neoclassical Teatro Sociale, with opera, ballet and concerts, an open-air summer stage beside it, and chamber music in churches and lakeside villas. La Scala is a short train ride away.

Pula's big moment is a summer concert or film screening inside the Roman Arena. The rest of the year there is mostly drama in Croatian at the Istrian National Theatre.

Como is the better place to unwind, although neither city has thermal baths or a bathing culture to build a stay around. What makes the difference is the landscape. A lake held between mountains has a stillness the open coast can't match, and a typical Como day is restful in itself: a boat to a villa garden, lunch in a lakeside village, an early night. If you want treatments too, the grand hotels on the shore have spas of their own, and the quieter months either side of summer suit this kind of stay best.

Pula's kind of rest is simpler and centres on the sea. The calm comes from a morning swim, an unhurried coffee in the old town and a walk under the pines by the water. For pampering you go to the resort hotels on the peninsulas south of town, which are add-ons rather than part of the place. So where Como works as a retreat, Pula is better for a lazy beach week, ideally outside July and August.