Florence or Lugano?

Neither city has a beach of its own, but Lugano lets you swim without leaving town. The lido at the Cassarate mouth and the bathing decks towards Castagnola and Paradiso put you in the lake on any hot summer afternoon, with boats out to the small baths in the villages.

From Florence, a swim means a hotel pool or a public pool on the edge of the city, or a full day's train trip to the sandy Versilia coast around Viareggio. If cooling off in open water matters, Lugano is the easier choice.

Florence is the stronger eating city by some distance. You can have bistecca and ribollita in Oltrarno trattorie, lampredotto from a cart, and browse the stalls at Sant'Ambrogio and the Mercato Centrale, with Chianti poured by the glass and serious gelato in between. It has range at every price, as long as you avoid the set menus round the Duomo.

Lugano's best meal is a long lunch at a grotto: polenta, braised meat and Ticino Merlot at a granite table under chestnut trees. Beyond that the choice thins out quickly. There is little street food and not much variety, so many visitors cross into Italy to eat.

This is where the two differ most. Florence holds the core of the Renaissance within walking distance: the Duomo and Baptistery, the Uffizi, David in the Accademia, the Bargello's sculpture, the Pitti Palace and smaller treasures like the Brancacci Chapel. There is enough for a week, and booking ahead is necessary.

Lugano's sights are pleasant and modest. You get the arcaded streets around Piazza della Riforma, the Luini Passion fresco in Santa Maria degli Angioli, the art collection split between LAC and Palazzo Reali, and the Hesse museum up in Montagnola. One unhurried day covers them.

Florence gives you more to do after dinner, though neither city is for dancing till dawn. Piazza Santo Spirito fills with people drinking outside on warm nights, Sant'Ambrogio has a more local bar crowd, and in summer bars set up along the Arno. The student population keeps some places loud.

Lugano's evenings are an aperitivo by the lake and a long dinner, with a few smart cocktail bars and a well-dressed local crowd. The town is usually quiet before midnight, and young locals go to Milan for a big night out.

Lugano is the place for scenery. Steep wooded mountains drop straight into the lake, and funiculars from the edge of town reach the tops of Monte Brè and San Salvatore. From there, paths lead down through chestnut woods. Monte Generoso's rack railway, the ridge from Lema to Tamaro and the green rivers of the Verzasca and Maggia valleys turn a stay into a walking trip, with kayaks and paddleboards on the lake as well.

Florence's countryside is gentler and more cultivated. You can walk the olive terraces at Fiesole or cycle the cypress-lined Chianti lanes, and the Casentino forests and the Apuan marble peaks are further out for a long day.

Both are excellent bases, but Florence has more first-rank places close by. Siena, Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano, Volterra and the Chianti villages are all in reach, Bologna is a short high-speed ride, and the Val d'Orcia lies further south. Trains handle the towns, and a car opens up the hill villages.

Lugano's strength is that its trips cross a border. Milan's Last Supper and Brera, Como, Bellinzona's castles, Lake Maggiore and the Borromean Islands are all easy by rail or boat. It is a shorter list than Florence's, but more varied in landscape.

Lugano is easier with children because the lake and mountains keep them busy. They get boat rides to the villages, slides at the lidos, funiculars and the Generoso rack railway, playgrounds in Parco Ciani and Swissminiatur at Melide. The steep streets are hard work with a pushchair, and older teenagers may run out of things to do.

Florence asks more of young visitors. The dome climb, the secret passages of Palazzo Vecchio, the Museo Galileo and the Boboli Gardens are the highlights, with Pinocchio's park at Collodi as an outing. Narrow pavements and the summer heat make it a spring or autumn choice for families.

Both centres are easy to manage without a car, but in different ways. Florence is flat and compact. The Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio, the Accademia and the Pitti are a short walk apart, trams run to the airport, and Santa Maria Novella sits in the centre for rail trips. Crowds and stone paving are the main hardships.

In Lugano the challenge is the slope. A funicular links the hilltop station to the old town, and boats, buses and mountain railways do much of the work that feet do in Florence.

Florence is the better place to shop, especially for things made by hand. It has leather from workshops and the San Lorenzo stalls, marbled paper, goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio, gilders and framers in the Oltrarno and antiques on Via Maggio, with the fashion houses of Via de' Tornabuoni for luxury.

Lugano's shopping is mostly Via Nassa, where Swiss watchmakers and Italian labels line the arcades for a wealthy clientele. Add delicatessens and the Mendrisio outlet village and that is most of it. There is little craft, and serious shoppers go on to Milan.

Neither is a cheap stay, but Florence is clearly easier on the wallet. Centre hotels and museum fees add up, yet street food, market counters, trattoria meals and cheap house wine keep daily costs reasonable. Since you walk everywhere, transport costs almost nothing.

Lugano charges Swiss prices for everything: hotels, dinners, wine, boats and mountain railways. Grotti and set lunches help, and so does the free regional transport that comes with most hotel stays, but there is no budget way to stay in town.

Florence has the deeper classical tradition, as the city where opera began. The Teatro del Maggio Musicale stages opera, concerts and ballet with its own orchestra, the spring festival is one of Europe's oldest, and the Pergola is a beautiful old playhouse. Many visitors only see the church concerts put on for tourists.

Lugano's music centres on one place, LAC, where the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana plays in a hall with fine acoustics. Its best-known event is Estival Jazz, which fills Piazza della Riforma with free concerts in summer. Opera lovers head to La Scala in Milan.

Florence's calm has to be found at the edges of the day: early mornings, the Boboli and Bardini gardens, and a slow evening across the river in the Oltrarno. For proper bathing you leave the city. The old spa halls of Montecatini Terme are under an hour by train, and the hot sulphur pools of Bagno Vignoni and Saturnia go well with a night or two on a farm stay in the hills.

Lugano works the other way round. The town itself is restful, but there is little to bathe in. The ease comes from its pace: palm-lined promenades, an afternoon at a lido and a bench in Parco Ciani. Hotel spas and the indoor pool and sauna complex near Rivera cover a wet day.