Florence or Milan?

Neither city is a place to swim, but Milan has the slight edge because its water is closer. Lake Como and Lake Maggiore are about an hour by train, with pebbly lidos and swimming platforms, and the Idroscalo near Linate gives locals a lake inside the city limits.

From Florence the nearest water is the sandy Versilia coast around Viareggio, a longer trip that takes a whole day. In Florence a hotel pool is the realistic way to cool off.

The two eat about equally well, but the cooking comes from different parts of Italy. Florence cooks with olive oil and old bread: bistecca, ribollita, lampredotto from street carts, and Chianti poured by the glass. The markets at San Lorenzo and Sant'Ambrogio show you what the city actually eats.

Milan cooks with butter and saffron, with risotto, ossobuco and cotoletta, and it has a wider range, including good cooking from other regions and more fine dining. Aperitivo is the ritual there, while street food and markets matter far less than in Florence.

Florence is in a class of its own here. The Duomo, the Uffizi, David in the Accademia, the Bargello and the Pitti Palace fill an old town that holds together street after street, and smaller places like San Marco and the Brancacci Chapel can easily fill a week.

Milan has a handful of masterpieces, among them the Last Supper, the Duomo rooftops, the Brera gallery and the Rondanini Pietà at the Castello. Between them, though, lies a modern business city, so a couple of days covers what most visitors come to see.

Milan keeps going much later. After aperitivo on the Navigli towpaths, the night can move to dressy clubs around Corso Como or warehouse parties on the city's edge, and Porta Venezia has the city's gay scene. Expect a stylish, well-dressed crowd.

Florence's evenings are about long dinners and a glass of wine on Piazza Santo Spirito or around Sant'Ambrogio, plus a few loud pubs for students. There are very few clubs, and the city goes quiet early.

Milan has the more dramatic scenery within reach, though the city itself is flat and often hazy. An hour north, Lake Como and Lake Maggiore sit under steep wooded slopes, and the Grigne ridges above Lecco offer proper hiking and via ferrata.

Florence's countryside starts right at the city's edge, with olive terraces at Fiesole and cypress-lined lanes through Chianti, but it is gentle, farmed land rather than mountains. The Casentino forests and the Apuan Alps are its wilder options, further away.

Both are excellent bases, but Florence has more first-rate places close by. Siena, Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano and the Chianti villages are all an hour or so away, and Bologna is a short high-speed ride. A car opens up the hill towns and wineries.

Milan relies on fast trains and lake boats: Bergamo, Verona, Turin and Lake Como are each about an hour away, and Lugano lets you add Switzerland. The towns are further apart and more varied, but you get less of the dense Tuscan cluster of hilltop towns.

Milan is the easier city with children. The science and technology museum, with its submarine and hands-on labs, is a good choice for a rainy day, the aquarium sits by Parco Sempione, and Leolandia and Gardaland are within reach for older children.

Florence works best when you turn sights into adventures, such as climbing the dome, the secret passages of Palazzo Vecchio and the globes at the Museo Galileo. The narrow pavements and summer crowds make it harder going, and Pinocchio's park at Collodi is about the only real family outing nearby.

Florence is a city you cover almost entirely on foot. The Duomo, the Uffizi and the Pitti Palace are within about twenty minutes of each other. With no metro, the small buses mostly matter for the climb to Fiesole or Piazzale Michelangelo. The price is narrow pavements and stone paving that tires the feet.

Milan has an equally flat, walkable centre, plus five metro lines and a dense tram network, old orange cars included, so outer districts are just as easy to reach. Its weak points are the stuffy underground in summer and the long transfer from Malpensa.

Milan is the fashion capital, and shopping can be the main reason for going. Via Montenapoleone and Via della Spiga hold the great houses' flagships, the Galleria and La Rinascente sit by the Duomo, and design showrooms, Brera boutiques and Corso Buenos Aires cover everything below the luxury level.

Florence is better for craft than for fashion. Look for leather workshops, marbled paper, goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio and the gilders and restorers of the Oltrarno. Via de' Tornabuoni is elegant but short, and there is far less mainstream choice.

Both are expensive, and hotels are the biggest cost in each. In Florence, museum and dome tickets add up over a few days, while street food, market lunches and walking everywhere keep the rest down. Staying across the river or visiting in winter helps most.

In Milan the costs come from stylish bars and from hotel rates that jump during the trade fairs and fashion weeks. Aperitivo snacks as supper, office-worker set lunches and a room near an outer metro stop are the ways to save.

Milan has La Scala, one of the world's great opera houses, with a season that opens each December on the feast of Sant'Ambrogio. Around it are the Piccolo Teatro, a symphony orchestra, jazz rooms and big stadium concerts at San Siro.

Florence, where opera was more or less born, has the Teatro del Maggio and its spring festival, but most visitors end up at church concerts staged for tourists. Out of season, evenings there offer far fewer choices.

Neither is a place to unwind in town, and both send you out to rest. Milan does have a thermal spa complex in the city and the 1930s open-air pools of the Bagni Misteriosi, with quiet lakeside villas an hour away.

Florence has no spa culture within its walls, though the Boboli and Bardini gardens are calm early in the day. Its real advantage is nearby: Montecatini Terme by train, the hot springs of Bagno Vignoni and Saturnia, and farm stays in the Tuscan hills.