Florence or Hallstatt?

Neither place is a beach destination, but Hallstatt at least lets you swim on the spot. There is a small lawn-and-jetty bathing area in the village and a larger lido at Obertraun. The lake water is cold and clear, and a dip after a summer hike is easy, even if the season is short.

Florence has no water to swim in. The nearest sea is the sandy Versilia coast, about an hour and a half away by train, so bathing means a hotel or public pool or a full day out.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Florence is a city you could plan a trip around for the food alone: rare bistecca, ribollita, tripe rolls from street carts, the Mercato Centrale and Sant'Ambrogio markets, and Chianti vineyards on the city's doorstep.

Hallstatt has a few guesthouse dining rooms serving schnitzel and dumplings. Smoked or pan-fried char from the lake is the one local dish worth seeking out. Most visitors eat well once and then head to Bad Ischl's patisseries for more choice.

Florence holds one of the greatest concentrations of art in Europe. There is Brunelleschi's dome, the Uffizi, the Bargello's sculpture and the Pitti Palace, plus smaller treasures such as the Brancacci Chapel and the Medici Chapels, all within walking distance.

Hallstatt's culture is older and narrower. Seven thousand years of salt mining, the Iron Age burial finds that named the Hallstatt culture, and the painted skulls of the Beinhaus make a memorable half day or full day. Beyond that, the village itself is the sight.

Florence's evenings are modest by big-city standards, but there is real life after dinner. People drink on the steps of Piazza Santo Spirito, Sant'Ambrogio has its local bars, and in summer there are outdoor bars along the Arno.

In Hallstatt the village goes quiet once the day visitors leave, and an evening means dinner and a walk by the lake in the dark. Anyone who wants a drink after ten will be far happier in Florence.

Hallstatt is the place for landscape. The lake fills a glacial trough under the Dachstein, and from the village you can reach cable cars, the Five Fingers platform, ice caves, waterfalls and the mirror view at the Gosausee. In winter there is ski touring.

Florence's outdoors is softer and more cultivated. You get olive terraces at Fiesole, cypress lanes and vineyards in Chianti, and the Casentino forests further out. These are lovely for a walk or a bike ride between museum days, but they are not mountains.

Florence has some of the best day trips anywhere. Siena, Pisa, Lucca and Bologna are all an hour or so by train or bus, and the Chianti villages, San Gimignano and the Val d'Orcia are easy by car.

Hallstatt has a pleasant regional circuit instead: imperial Bad Ischl, St Wolfgang's altarpiece, Gmunden's lake castle, and Salzburg as a long day out. Without a car, the buses and the lakeside railway take careful planning, whereas Florence's central station makes most outings simple.

Neither place is especially built for children, and each offers a few highlights. In Florence these are climbing the dome, the secret passages of Palazzo Vecchio, the globes at the Museo Galileo, open space in the Boboli and the Pinocchio park at Collodi. Hot summers and crowded pavements make spring or autumn the better time to go.

Hallstatt's draws are more physical: the miners' slides and underground lake in the salt mine, the ice caves for older children, and rowing boats in summer. The steep single lane is hard work with a pushchair, so families usually stay in Obertraun.

Florence is easier to move around in. The main sights are within about twenty minutes of each other on foot, trams run to the airport, and Santa Maria Novella sits right in the centre for rail trips.

Hallstatt is tiny but steep, with steps up to the church. Arriving by train means taking a boat across from the station on the far shore. The buses to Obertraun, Gosau and Bad Ischl are sparse outside summer, so many visitors find a car worth having.

Florence has real shopping. There is leather from market stalls and workshops, marbled paper, the jewellers on the Ponte Vecchio, the artisan workshops of the Oltrarno and the fashion houses on Via de' Tornabuoni.

Hallstatt has one lane of souvenir shops. The only buy you will find nowhere else is salt from the mountain above, sold as grinders or bath mixes. It takes half an hour at most.

Both are pricey for what they are, but Florence is the easier one to do cheaply. Street-stall lampredotto, market lunches, cheap house wine and a walkable centre all keep daily costs down. Rooms across the river or near the station take the sting out of hotel prices.

Hallstatt has few beds and worldwide demand, so rooms and meals are priced at Alpine resort level, and the salt mine and cable car add up. The usual way round this is to sleep in Obertraun, Bad Goisern or Bad Ischl and come in for the day.

Florence has a proper musical life, which makes sense in the city where opera began. The Maggio Musicale theatre stages opera, concerts and ballet through the season, and the spring festival is one of Europe's oldest. There are also church and palace concerts for a lighter evening.

Hallstatt has a brass band on feast days and the odd summer church concert. For a real night of music you would drive to Salzburg or catch operetta in Bad Ischl.

Florence sends you out of town to slow down, while in Hallstatt the calm is on the doorstep. Inside Florence the quiet hours come early in the morning, in the Boboli and Bardini gardens. For warm water you go further: the grand drinking halls of Montecatini Terme are under an hour by train, and the open-air sulphur pools at Saturnia need a longer day or a night away. A few nights on a farm in the hills is the classic way to unwind.

Hallstatt's stillness comes at the edges of the day, with mist on the lake at dawn and an empty lane once the tour groups have left. When you want a proper soak, the brine baths of Bad Ischl are half an hour away, and Bad Aussee and Bad Goisern have their own spa traditions nearby.