Florence or Ljubljana?

Neither city suits a beach vacation, but a summer swim is easier to arrange from Ljubljana. Locals bathe in the Sava on the northern edge, and Lake Bled, about an hour away, is warm enough in July and August, with colder, clearer Bohinj beyond it. Slovenia's own coast at Piran is concrete and pebble rather than sand.

Florence has no water close by at all, so in summer you rely on hotel and public pools. The sandy Versilia beaches near Viareggio are the nicer shore of the two, but at an hour and a half by train they take a full day, not an afternoon.

Florence is the stronger place to eat, with a cuisine people travel for: bistecca alla fiorentina, ribollita, lampredotto from street carts, and the Mercato Centrale and Sant'Ambrogio markets. The catch is the set menus around the Duomo, so the good meals are in the trattorie of the Oltrarno.

Ljubljana's cooking is hearty and regional, with štruklji, jota and Carniolan sausage in gostilna inns, and a morning at the Central Market under Plečnik's colonnades is well spent. Its wines, including the orange wines of the west, hold their own against the Chianti poured in Florence, but the food is narrower in range and a week is enough to work through it.

This is the widest gap between the two. Florence holds the core of the Renaissance within a few streets: Brunelleschi's dome, Botticelli in the Uffizi, David in the Accademia, the Bargello's sculpture and the frescoes at San Marco. That is enough for a full week if you book ahead.

In Ljubljana the appeal lies in the townscape as a whole, not in its collections. Plečnik's bridges, embankments and library, the baroque old town and the castle on its hill fill two or three pleasant days, and Metelkova adds a rougher modern edge, but none of its museums is a reason to make the trip.

Neither is a city for dancing until dawn, and the difference is mostly one of setting. Florence's evenings run from aperitivo to the wine bar, with crowds drinking on Piazza Santo Spirito, a more local scene at Sant'Ambrogio and loud student pubs near the centre.

In Ljubljana the night is spent on the terraces along both banks of the Ljubljanica. It also has something Florence lacks in Metelkova, where small, scruffy clubs in the former barracks stay open late at weekends.

Ljubljana has the real mountains. Šmarna Gora and the Tivoli woods start in town, and the Kamnik-Savinja Alps are about forty minutes away. The Julian Alps, Triglav National Park, rafting on the Soča and the Postojna caves are all within a day, with small ski resorts in winter.

Florence's outdoors is gentler and more cultivated: olive terraces at Fiesole, cypress lanes and vineyards in Chianti for walking and cycling, and the Casentino forests further out. It is lovely in spring and autumn, but it is farmed countryside, not wild country.

Florence has an extraordinary ring of towns around it: Siena, Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano, Volterra and the Chianti villages, with Bologna under forty minutes away by fast train. You could spend a week of outings without repeating one.

Ljubljana does well for a small country. Bled, Škofja Loka, Predjama Castle, Idrija and Piran are all within reach, and Trieste and Zagreb lie across the borders. Its outings lean towards lakes, castles and villages rather than great art cities.

Ljubljana is the easier of the two with children. Its flat, mostly car-free centre suits pushchairs, the castle funicular and the Dragon Bridge go down well, and Tivoli Park, the small zoo on Rožnik hill and the puppet theatre fill the rest of the time.

Florence asks more of young families, with narrow pavements, heavy summer crowds, the heat and sights made for adults. Climbing the dome, the secret passages of Palazzo Vecchio and a day at the Pinocchio park in Collodi help, but in neither city will you find a big attraction built for children.

Both are walking cities, with the main sights about twenty minutes apart on foot, so the difference lies in the details. Florence's stone pavements are narrow and crowded in summer, trams run to the airport, and Santa Maria Novella station sits in the centre for rail trips across Tuscany.

Ljubljana's centre is largely pedestrianised and far less crowded, with electric shuttles and a bike-share scheme. To get into the countryside, intercity buses are quicker than its slow trains, and a car helps in the mountain valleys.

Florence is a real shopping destination for crafts. It has leather from workshops and the San Lorenzo stalls, marbled paper, the goldsmiths of the Ponte Vecchio, the gilders of the Oltrarno and the fashion houses on Via de' Tornabuoni. Look closely at the leather, though, since some of it is mass-produced.

Ljubljana is good for small gifts: honey, pumpkin-seed oil, coastal salt, Idrija lace and gingerbread hearts, plus a Sunday flea market on the embankment. It has no luxury street and little fashion to speak of.

Ljubljana is easier on a budget. Set lunch menus at the inns, fairly priced local wine and cheap entry to most sights keep daily costs down, though central hotels in summer charge Western European rates.

Florence is expensive from spring to autumn, and the Uffizi, the Accademia and the dome climb each charge a real fee. Lampredotto from the street stalls, lunches at market counters and walking everywhere all help, and so does staying across the river or near the station.

Florence has the deeper classical heritage, since opera began here around 1600. It has the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and its spring festival, one of the oldest in Europe. Much of what visitors actually see, though, is concerts in churches staged for tourists.

Ljubljana is not far behind for a city of its size. It has the Philharmonic, the National Opera and Ballet, Cankarjev dom and summer concerts in Plečnik's Križanke courtyard. It also has more of a fringe, with rock, jazz and alternative gigs at Metelkova.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, so both send you out of town to soak. From Florence that means the grand halls of Montecatini Terme, under an hour away by train, or the open-air sulphur pools of Saturnia and Bagno Vignoni on a longer outing.

What Ljubljana offers instead is everyday calm, with a green, car-free centre and slow afternoons at riverside cafés, a contrast to Florence's crowded summer streets. Slovenia's thermal spa towns are about an hour's drive away, and there is a water park with saunas on the city's edge.