Como or Salzburg?

Neither city is for a beach vacation. The swimming season is the same short June to early September in both, and you get in from lawns, jetties and pebbles, not sand. The difference is distance. Como's lido beside Villa Olmo is on the city's own shore, and ferries reach the swimming jetties at Moltrasio and the Tremezzina.

Salzburg's river is too cold and fast to swim in, so a swim means the trip out to Fuschlsee, Wolfgangsee or Mondsee. The water there is clearer, though, than at the busy southern tip of Lake Como.

Both kitchens are hearty and regional, and in both the tourist centre is the weakest place to eat. Como cooks from the lake and the valleys: perch risotto, sun-dried missoltini and polenta, with an aperitivo and small plates on the squares by the cathedral and San Fedele as the evening ritual.

Salzburg puts schnitzel, Kasnocken and the peaked Salzburger Nockerl on the table. Its real strengths are coffee and cake in the old coffee houses and beer from wooden barrels in the monastery brewery garden in Mülln. In both cities, the inns and family places up in the hills beat the lakefront terraces and the old-town lanes.

Salzburg has much more to see. Its UNESCO-listed old town puts the cathedral, the Residenz, Mirabell and both Mozart houses a short walk apart, with Hohensalzburg on the cliff above. St Peter's catacombs, the Museum der Moderne on the Mönchsberg and Hellbrunn fill a second and third day.

Como's sights are fewer but good. There is the marble cathedral, the Romanesque San Fedele and Sant'Abbondio, Terragni's Casa del Fascio for anyone interested in architecture, and the Volta and silk museums. It all fits into one day, which leaves the rest of the stay for the lake.

Both cities go quiet early, and in both the big night out means a train, to Milan from Como and to Munich from Salzburg. What differs is the drink. A Como evening is aperitivo, a long dinner, a wine or cocktail bar on Piazza Duomo and a stroll on the lakefront. Salzburg's best evenings are in beer halls with long tables and litre mugs, and the student pubs along Rudolfskai stay open later at weekends during term.

Both have superb scenery straight from the centre, but it differs in kind. Como's is a lake landscape. The funicular climbs to Brunate for ridge paths to the Volta lighthouse, the Greenway del Lago links villages along the shore, there is kayaking and sailing on the water, and road cyclists take on the climb to Madonna del Ghisallo.

Salzburg's is properly alpine. The Untersberg cable car lifts you to limestone ridges at about 1,800m, the Gaisberg is used for paragliding, and Berchtesgaden and the Königssee are half an hour away. In winter the ski areas of the Salzburger Land are about an hour's drive, which gives Salzburg a snow season the lake does not offer.

Como has the stronger list, and much of it needs no car. Boats run to Bellagio, Varenna, Villa Carlotta and Balbianello. Trains put the Last Supper and La Scala in Milan, the Lugano lakefront and Bergamo's upper town within easy reach, and Lake Maggiore's Borromean Islands are possible too.

Salzburg's excursions are good as well. Hallstatt, the salt mines of Hallein and Berchtesgaden, the clifftop fortress at Werfen and Munich by train make a varied set. Several of the lake villages, though, are awkward to reach without a car, and few trips match Como's mix of lake villas and major art cities.

Salzburg is the easier choice with children. Hellbrunn's trick fountains, the zoo beside them, the hands-on Haus der Natur, the marionette theatre and the fortress funicular fill a couple of days. The salt mines, with their miners' slides and underground boat rides, make a memorable outing, though the cobbles are hard going with a pushchair.

Como has smoother ground, with a flat promenade and the Villa Olmo gardens. It also has the Brunate funicular, ferry rides and summer paddling, but very little built for children. It suits a slow outdoor family stay rather than a busy one.

Como's old town and lakefront are flat and compact, so they are easy on foot, and its two stations put Milan and Lugano a quick train ride away. Getting around the lake is the slow part. The ferries take a long time to reach the villages further up, and buses and cars crawl along the narrow shore roads in summer.

Salzburg is the easier city to get around overall. The old town, the fortress, Mirabell and the Mozart houses are all within about fifteen minutes' walk of each other and much of the centre is car-free, though the lanes are cobbled and some are steep. A dense trolleybus network reaches Hellbrunn and the Untersberg cable car, and the flat riverside paths suit a bike. In both cities a car is only worth having for the outlying villages.

Each city has one thing worth buying, and Salzburg has slightly more around it. Its speciality is Tracht: dirndls, loden jackets and leather made to measure in old-town workshops. It also has the guild signs of Getreidegasse, the farmers' market by the Andräkirche and the long-established Advent market on Domplatz.

Como's speciality is silk, with scarves and ties from old-town shops and outlets at the mills that supply the fashion houses. Beyond that there is a short run of boutiques on Via Vittorio Emanuele II and a weekend antiques market. For serious fashion, Milan is close.

Both are expensive, and in neither does the setting come cheap. Como's prices peak in July and August, when lakeside hotels and villa rentals soar, so spring and autumn are noticeably kinder. Salzburg stays costly all year and tightens further during the summer festival and the Advent markets.

The ways to save are similar: sleep back from the water or across the river, and eat in the trattorias and inns of the hills and outer districts. Salzburg's city card cuts sightseeing costs, while in Como cheap trains and ferries keep day trips affordable.

This is the widest gap between the two. Salzburg's music is a reason to go in itself. The Salzburg Festival fills the Grosses Festspielhaus and the Felsenreitschule, carved into the cliff, Jedermann is played in front of the cathedral, and Mozart Week and the Easter Festival add two more seasons. Between them, the Mozarteum, the Landestheater and the Marionette Theatre keep the programme going.

Como has the handsome Teatro Sociale with its open-air summer Arena, plus chamber concerts in Romanesque churches and lakeside villas. It is a respectable programme, but for more than that, visitors take the train to La Scala.

Neither has thermal springs of its own, but Salzburg has a bathing culture close by. In town there is the Paracelsus Bad with its saunas, Bad Reichenhall's brine spa is about twenty minutes away, and the Gastein valley has radon springs and Belle Époque spa hotels.

Como relies on its setting: still water, gardens running down to the shore and slow ferry rides, with spa treatments mostly in the grand villa hotels. It is deeply restful in spring and autumn, but the lakefront gets busy in midsummer.