Cortina d'Ampezzo or Padua?

Cortina has no beach at all. The Adriatic is more than two hours away by road, and alpine lakes such as Ghedina and Pianozes stay cold from snowmelt even in midsummer. In practice, swimming means a hotel pool.

Padua is no beach town either, but the sea is a manageable day out. Sottomarina and the Lido of Venice are about an hour away, with shallow, calm water that suits paddling children. The shore is flat sand lined with umbrellas, practical rather than scenic.

Cortina eats well for a small town. Its Ampezzan dishes include casunziei with beetroot and poppy seeds, and polenta with game. The best meals are often on hut terraces among the peaks. The choice is narrow and rarely cheap, though, with almost no street food.

Padua offers more variety and more of daily life around food. Venetian home cooking such as bigoli with duck sauce and baccalà sits beside the morning markets in Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta. Add the early-evening spritz ritual, Euganean wines and the old coffee house Caffè Pedrocchi, and eating becomes part of the sightseeing.

In Cortina, the sights fill a rainy afternoon: the basilica and its bell tower, painted houses, the 1956 Olympic ice stadium and the Rimoldi collection of modern Italian art. Its most moving heritage is the First World War tunnels and trenches on Lagazuoi and the Cinque Torri, but reaching them takes a day in the mountains.

Padua is in another league. Giotto's Scrovegni cycle, which needs a timed booking, leads a UNESCO-listed group of fourteenth-century frescoes. Beyond those come the Basilica of Saint Anthony with Donatello's work, the frescoed hall of the Palazzo della Ragione, the world's oldest permanent anatomical theatre and a botanical garden founded in 1545.

Evenings in Cortina start with après-ski and a stroll along the Corso Italia, then turn into long dinners. Late bars and a club or two open only in the peak winter weeks. In summer the town is quiet by late evening.

Padua has a livelier evening most of the year, but it is built around the aperitivo rather than dancing. Students and locals crowd Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signori over spritz glasses, and wine bars fill the old ghetto during term. It goes quiet in high summer, so in August neither place offers much after dark.

Cortina is one of the finest mountain bases anywhere. Pale Dolomite peaks ring the valley, and the Fanes-Sennes-Braies park begins at its edge. Lago di Misurina and the Tre Cime are under an hour away. Winter brings the Sella Ronda and long descents, while summer brings hiking, climbing, biking and paragliding.

Padua's outdoors is gentler and starts a little way out. The volcanic Euganean Hills, about 15km away, offer vineyard trails and road cycling, and the Brenta towpaths make level rides through villa country. Real mountain walking means driving out to Monte Grappa or the Asiago plateau.

From Cortina, most outings lead to more mountains. The towns within reach, from San Candido and Brunico to Bolzano with its Iceman, are pleasant rather than essential, and Venice means a long coach journey each way.

Padua is one of the best bases in northern Italy. Venice is under half an hour by train, close enough to visit on several days. Vicenza's Palladian palaces, Verona, Treviso, Bologna and Ferrara are all easy train trips, and the Brenta villas and the walled towns of Este, Monselice and Montagnana are closer still.

Cortina comes out ahead for active families. Ski schools take all ages, there are beginner slopes at Socrepes and skating at the Olympic stadium, and summer brings a rope park and easy walks to huts with meadows to run in. Wet days with small children are harder, and the costs add up quickly.

Padua is safe and flat, and children are welcome in any trattoria, but its main sights are churches and frescoes. Prato della Valle and the botanical glasshouses help. Otherwise, families rely on outings to Gardaland, Lake Garda or the Adriatic beaches.

Both centres are small enough to walk, but beyond them the two are very different. Cortina has had no railway since 1964, so arriving means a coach from Venice or a long drive. Buses to the passes and the Tre Cime are infrequent, and most visitors end up hiring a car.

Padua is easy without one. Arcades shelter much of the walk between its sights, a tram runs from the station to Prato della Valle, and main-line trains leave in every direction. A car is only needed for the hills.

Neither is a shopping destination, but they sell very different things. Cortina's Corso Italia is a short, polished strip of luxury fashion, jewellers, furriers and high-end mountain wear. The Cooperativa di Cortina, founded in 1893, anchors it, and there are local wood carving and filigree too.

Padua is more everyday. Its arcades hold Italian shoe and fashion shops and university bookshops, and its markets and delicatessens are the place for cheese and Euganean wine. A large antiques market fills Prato della Valle one Sunday a month.

Cortina is among the most expensive places to stay in Italy, especially in the winter peak and in August. Lift passes and equipment hire add to the cost. Meals at the rifugi and the quieter weeks of June and late September soften it, but many budget travellers sleep in cheaper valleys nearby.

Padua costs what a mid-sized northern Italian city usually does, and many visitors stay there because it is a reasonably priced base for Venice and the region. Watch for dearer rooms during the big trade fairs and graduation season.

Cortina has no theatre season and no regular venue. Its music comes mainly in summer, when chamber and classical festivals hold concerts in churches, halls and sometimes on the mountainsides.

Padua offers something all year. The horseshoe-shaped Teatro Verdi stages plays and some opera, and a chamber orchestra plays in the frescoed Sala dei Giganti and the Basilica of Saint Anthony. For grand opera, La Fenice in Venice and the summer Arena in Verona are within easy reach.

In Cortina, relaxation happens in the hotels: Alpine spas with saunas, hay baths and indoor pools after a day outdoors. Its calm is real in June, September and the quieter winter weeks, but in peak season traffic and crowds take much of it away.

Padua has one of Europe's largest thermal districts on its doorstep. At Abano Terme and Montegrotto Terme, about 12km away, hot mineral water and mud have been used since Roman times, and many spa hotels accept day visitors. A soak after a morning of frescoes is easy.