Cortina d'Ampezzo or Piran?

Piran wins this easily. Cortina sits in a high valley, and its only open water is snowmelt lakes like Ghedina and Pianozes, which stay cold even in July. Swimming there mostly means a hotel pool.

Piran is built on the sea. You swim in clear water from the rocks and ladders below the walls and around the Punta, Fiesa's pebble cove is a short walk away, and Portoroz and Strunjan have sandier shores. It is a town for swimming rather than lying on sand, but the Adriatic is right there.

Both towns eat well within a narrow range, but the food itself is very different. Cortina serves mountain cooking with a Venetian accent: casunziei with poppy seeds, polenta with game, barley soup. It tastes best on a rifugio terrace among the peaks, and a few ambitious kitchens in the valley cater for its wealthy visitors.

Piran serves grilled fish, squid and scampi buzara in simple konobas by the water, with Malvazija or Refosk to drink and salt from its own pans on the table. Cortina has the more polished dining rooms. Piran has the simpler, cheaper meal with a sea view.

Piran is the better place to wander. The sight is the whole town: a peninsula of Venetian Gothic houses with oval Tartini Square, St George's Church above the bay and the medieval walls on the ridge, and its lanes and cloister fill a day well.

Cortina's centre is pleasant but has little to see: the basilica's bell tower, painted houses, the 1956 Olympic ice stadium and the Rimoldi art collection. Its most powerful history is the First World War tunnels on Lagazuoi and the Cinque Torri, and reaching them takes a day in the mountains.

Neither town is a place for a night out, but evenings take different forms. Cortina has après-ski when the lifts close and a passeggiata along the Corso Italia, and only in the peak winter weeks do a couple of smart bars and clubs stay open late. In Piran the evening is a glass of wine at sunset on the Punta, and Portoroz next door has beach bars, a casino and summer clubs for anyone who wants more.

Cortina is in a different league here. The Dolomites ring the town, lifts rise straight onto the Tofane and Cristallo, and the Tre Cime and Lago di Misurina are under an hour away. Winter brings the Dolomiti Superski area, and summer brings the Alta Via 1, hut-to-hut walking and some of the oldest via ferrata routes in the Alps.

Piran's outdoors is gentler and by the coast: the cliff path at Strunjan, wading birds in the Secovlje salt pans, kayaking under the flysch cliffs and the Parenzana cycle route inland. These make pleasant days in spring and autumn, but nothing to match a Dolomite summit.

Piran is the better base, with three countries within easy reach. Trieste is under an hour away, the Istrian towns of Rovinj, Porec and Motovun are to the south, and Predjama Castle and the Lipica stud farm are about an hour off. Ljubljana is under two hours away, and in summer boats cross to Venice.

From Cortina most outings stay in the mountains. San Candido, Brunico and Bolzano with its Iceman are the best of the South Tyrol towns, Lienz in Austria is within range too, and Venice is a long coach ride each way.

Both suit families who want a calm, safe place rather than attractions, and neither has a zoo or theme park. The difference is in how the days are spent. In Cortina children have ski school at Socrepes, skating at the Olympic stadium and meadows by the mountain huts. In Piran they swim in a calm, warm sea, visit the small aquarium and play in Portoroz's sandy shallows.

Cortina's costs climb quickly with children in tow. Piran's steep lanes and concrete ledges suit a few days better than a long stay.

Once you have arrived, Piran is the easier place. Its car-free old town takes about a quarter of an hour to cross, and a shuttle bus links the garage at the edge of town with the centre and Portoroz. Cortina's centre is just as walkable and its ski buses work well in winter. But with no railway, getting there means a coach from Venice or a long drive, and buses to the passes and the Tre Cime are infrequent.

Neither town has a train, so in both you will want a hire car to see the wider area: the Dolomite passes from Cortina, and the Istrian hill towns and the Karst from Piran.

Cortina is clearly the better place to shop. The Corso Italia fits luxury fashion, jewellers, furriers and upmarket mountain wear into one pedestrian street. At its heart is the Cooperativa, founded in 1893, which sells everything from local food to outdoor gear.

Piran has a few galleries, craft shops and souvenir stalls along the harbour. Its best buys are edible: salt flower from the Secovlje pans, Istrian olive oil and coastal wine.

Piran is far easier on the wallet. It is mid-priced for Western Europe, dearer in July and August, and the swimming and walking that fill the days cost nothing. Cortina is among the most expensive places to stay in Italy, with luxury prices for hotels and restaurants in winter and August, and lift passes and equipment hire on top.

Timing helps in both. In Cortina, rates ease in early summer and late September and rifugio meals are fair value. In Piran, staying in Portoroz or eating in simple konobas brings costs down.

Neither town has much live culture, but Piran has a little more. Summer concerts honour Tartini in its churches, the monastery cloister and on the main square, and the small Tartini Theatre puts on the occasional play or recital. Cortina has no theatre season at all: its music comes from summer chamber festivals, sometimes held outdoors in the mountains, and a few concerts around Christmas and New Year.

Piran has a real spa tradition. Portoroz grew up as a spa resort using seawater, brine and mud from the salt pans. At the Secovlje pans you can lie in salt mud outdoors among the lagoons, and Strunjan has its own seawater health resort.

Cortina has no springs and no bathing culture, so relaxing means a hotel spa with sauna and hay bath after the slopes, or a long afternoon on a hut terrace. Its calm also depends on the season, and it disappears in the peak weeks.