Cortina d'Ampezzo or Prague?

Neither city is a place to swim, and the options are different in each. Cortina's alpine lakes, Ghedina and Pianozes, are fed by snowmelt and are better for walking round than swimming in, so most swimming happens in hotel pools. Prague's water is warmer on a hot summer day: locals swim at the Dzban reservoir on the city's edge or at Slapy, about an hour south.

Both cities serve hearty, limited menus, but they eat in very different places. Cortina's Ampezzan dishes, such as casunziei with poppy seeds or polenta with game, taste best on a rifugio terrace. Down in the valley the restaurants are cosy, sometimes ambitious, and expensive throughout.

In Prague, food goes with the beer: carefully poured tank lager, svickova, goulash, and chlebicky at old-style buffets. Avoid the streets around Old Town Square and eat in the neighbourhood pubs of Vinohrady, Karlin or Letna, where a meal costs far less than in Cortina.

Cortina's centre is pleasant, with its basilica and bell tower, the ice stadium from the 1956 Winter Olympics and the Rimoldi collection of Italian art, but together they fill only an afternoon. Its most moving history, the First World War tunnels on Lagazuoi and the Cinque Torri, takes a full day in the mountains rather than a stroll.

Prague is in another league. The whole historic centre is protected, and its buildings run from the Gothic lanes of the Old Town through Baroque Mala Strana to Art Nouveau and rare Cubist houses. The Castle and Josefov are here too, and the essentials alone need three or four days.

In Cortina, evenings mean après-ski drinks, the passeggiata on the Corso Italia and long dinners. There are a few late bars in the peak winter weeks, and most summer nights are quiet. Prague is a real night out: long pub tables in Zizkov, wine bars in Vinohrady, summer beer gardens on Letna, and a techno and alternative scene in Holesovice, well away from the stag-party clubs of the Old Town.

Cortina sits inside one of the great mountain landscapes: a ring of pale Dolomite peaks with lifts straight from town. The Tre Cime and Lago di Misurina are under an hour away. There is skiing towards the Sella Ronda in winter, and climbing, mountain biking and paragliding in summer.

Prague's green spaces are gentler: woodland paths on Petrin, the rocky Divoka Sarka gorge, and cycling along the Vltava. The sandstone towers of Bohemian Switzerland are about two hours out and make for good hiking, but nothing near Prague compares with the Dolomites.

From Cortina, most days out lead up into the mountains rather than to other towns. San Candido, Brunico and Bolzano with its Iceman, all in South Tyrol, are worth the drive but charming rather than essential. Venice is a long coach day.

Prague is the better base. Kutna Hora and Karlstejn are about an hour by train, Terezin and Melnik are close, and Dresden is a two-hour ride along the Elbe. You can fit several very different towns into a week without a car.

Cortina works for families who come to ski or hike. There are ski schools for every age, beginner slopes at Socrepes, public skating at the Olympic ice stadium, and meadows to run around in beside the huts. The small centre is safe and calm, but nothing is built for children beyond the outdoors, and a wet day with young ones can drag.

Prague is just as safe, and it has the city attractions Cortina lacks: the zoo at Troja with its chairlift, the moving apostles of the astronomical clock, the Petrin funicular and mirror maze, and the National Technical Museum. The hard parts are physical. Cobbles and the long castle stairs make pushchairs a struggle, and the old centre is packed in summer.

Cortina's small centre takes minutes to cross, and ski buses serve the slopes in winter. Further out it gets harder: there has been no railway since 1964, buses to the passes are limited, and many visitors hire a car to see the wider Dolomites.

Prague is far easier. You can walk the centre from end to end, and three metro lines plus night trams on one ticket reach nearly every district, so no visitor needs a car.

Shopping in Cortina is one polished street, the Corso Italia, with luxury fashion, furriers and mountain wear, plus the Cooperativa di Cortina, founded in 1893. Prague offers more variety: international labels on Parizska, chains on Na Prikope, and Czech crystal, garnet jewellery and marionettes. Away from the souvenir streets there are design and vintage shops in Vinohrady and Holesovice.

Cortina is one of the most expensive places to stay in Italy. Hotels and restaurants charge luxury-resort rates in the winter peak and in August, and lift passes add to the bill. Meals at the rifugi and the quieter weeks of early summer and late September make it a little easier.

Prague is much easier on the budget. Beer, pub lunches and trams stay cheap. It is good value if you stay a few tram stops out and avoid the exchange booths and the restaurants with a view in the old centre.

Cortina has no theatre season. Summer chamber music festivals in churches and halls, with the odd concert in the mountains or at New Year, are about all there is.

In Prague, classical music is a reason to visit in itself. There is opera at the National Theatre, the State Opera and the Estates Theatre, where Don Giovanni had its premiere, and the Czech Philharmonic plays at the Rudolfinum. Black-light theatre and marionette shows need no Czech.

In Cortina, rest means an Alpine hotel spa after a day outdoors, with saunas, steam rooms, hay baths and an indoor pool. It also means a slow afternoon on a hut terrace in the clear air of June or September. In the peak weeks, traffic and crowds take away much of that calm.

Prague's slower pleasures are in its grand coffee houses, the terraced Baroque gardens below the castle and the quiet benches on Kampa or in Vysehrad. There are hotel spas and massage studios too, while the beer baths are more novelty than restoration. The tourist core is noisy, so a room in a residential neighbourhood does more for rest than any spa.