Florence or Munich?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Munich fits a swim into the day more easily. Florence's nearest sea is the Versilia coast around Viareggio, with long sandy beaches lined with rented loungers and warm summer water. Getting there by train and back is a full day, so most visitors in July settle for a hotel or public pool.

In Munich, people sunbathe on the gravel banks of the Isar, and the Starnberger See and Ammersee are under an hour away by S-Bahn, with lawns and jetties. The lake water is alpine-fed and fresh rather than warm, but you can go after a morning in a museum.

Florence gives food lovers more to work with. Bistecca, ribollita and pappa al pomodoro fill the trattorie of the Oltrarno and Sant'Ambrogio. Lampredotto comes from street carts, the Mercato Centrale and Sant'Ambrogio market show what locals buy, and Chianti Classico is grown just south of town. Eat a few streets away from the Duomo to avoid the set tourist menus.

Munich eats around its beer. Roast pork, Schweinshaxe, white sausage and pretzels go with litres of Helles in the beer halls, and you can bring a picnic to the beer gardens. The Viktualienmarkt and the coffee-and-cake habit add variety, but beyond Bavarian cooking the range is narrower than in Tuscany.

Florence holds an extraordinary concentration of Renaissance art. Brunelleschi's dome, the Uffizi, David in the Accademia, the Bargello's sculpture and the frescoed cells of San Marco are all within a compact medieval centre, and the smaller chapels and churches could fill a week.

Munich's strength is royal collections rather than a single great era. The Alte Pinakothek and the rest of the Kunstareal, the Residenz, Nymphenburg and the vast Deutsches Museum make a rich programme. But the old town around Marienplatz was largely rebuilt after the war, so the streets themselves carry less history than Florence's.

Munich keeps you out later. A beer hall evening can run on for hours, Glockenbachviertel and Gärtnerplatz have a dense run of cocktail and gay bars, and a few serious techno clubs stay open until morning at weekends. During Oktoberfest the Theresienwiese tents take over the city.

Florence's nights are built around aperitivo and wine bars. On warm evenings people drink outdoors on Piazza Santo Spirito, and there are bars along the Arno in summer. The club scene is small, though, and the city goes quiet earlier.

Florence's countryside is gentle and cultivated. Olive terraces climb towards Fiesole, cypress-lined lanes wind through the Chianti vineyards, and the beech and fir forests of the Casentino lie further out. The Apuan Alps and the Tuscan Apennines offer some mountain walking, and Abetone has winter skiing, but the peaks are lower and less dramatic and the slopes fewer.

Munich has the bigger landscapes. The Alps show on the southern skyline, and trains reach the Wetterstein, the Zugspitze and Tegernsee for serious hiking in summer and a much wider choice of skiing in winter. In town, the English Garden is vast, and surfers ride the Eisbach wave at its edge.

Both are superb bases, but Florence has more famous towns close by. Siena, Pisa, Lucca and Bologna are each about an hour or less away, and San Gimignano, Volterra, the Chianti villages and the Val d'Orcia add more. A hire car helps with the hill towns.

Munich's list is strong but more spread out. Augsburg is close, and Nuremberg, Regensburg and Salzburg are an hour or more by train. Neuschwanstein, the classic excursion, takes about two hours each way. On the other hand, regional trains handle almost all of it without a car.

Munich is much easier with children. There is Hellabrunn zoo on the Isar meadows, the hands-on Deutsches Museum, a Sea Life aquarium, beer gardens with playgrounds and lake beaches for summer afternoons, and Legoland within driving distance. The city is clean, green and gentle to get around.

Florence can work with the right approach. Children tend to enjoy climbing the dome, the secret-passage tours of Palazzo Vecchio, the globes at the Museo Galileo and the Boboli Gardens. But there is little purpose-built for families beyond the Pinocchio park at Collodi, and summer heat and crowds wear young children out.

Both centres are compact enough to walk, so the difference shows once you leave them. In Florence the main sights are about twenty minutes apart on foot and most visitors barely use transport. There is no metro, though, the stone paving is tiring and the pavements are narrow and crowded in summer.

Munich has an integrated U-Bahn, S-Bahn, tram and bus network that reaches Nymphenburg, the Olympic Park, the airport and the lakes. The flat streets and riverside routes also make cycling easy, which Florence's crowded centre does not.

The two are equally good for shopping but offer different things. Florence is about craft: leather from market stalls and workshops, marbled paper, goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio and gilders and restorers in the Oltrarno, plus fashion houses on Via de' Tornabuoni. Mainstream and independent fashion is limited.

Munich covers more ground. Department stores and chains line Neuhauser Strasse and Kaufingerstrasse, luxury labels are on Maximilianstrasse, and Glockenbach and Schwabing have independent boutiques. Its signature buy is Tracht, the dirndls and lederhosen of Bavarian costume, and in December the Christmas markets add craft stalls.

Both cities are expensive, and in both the hotel bill hurts most. In Florence, admission to the big museums and the dome climb adds up over a few days. Street-food lunches, cheap house wine and walking everywhere save money, and so do a room across the river or a winter visit.

In Munich, rooms are dear all year and peak during Oktoberfest and the big trade fairs. A picnic in a beer garden, free days in the parks and at the lakes, and token Sunday museum fees help balance it out.

Munich is the stronger city for an evening of music. The Bavarian State Opera plays most of the year in the National Theatre, and three orchestras of real standing perform in the Herkulessaal and the Prinzregententheater. The rococo Cuvilliés Theatre, a respected jazz scene and big concerts at the Olympic Park add range.

Florence, where opera was more or less born, has the Teatro del Maggio and its spring festival, one of the oldest in Europe. Away from those, most visitors end up at church and palace concerts staged for tourists, and there is little beyond the classical season.

Munich has a bathing culture you can use without leaving town. There is the Art Nouveau Müller'sches Volksbad with its Roman-style steam bath, there are textile-free public saunas with infusion rituals, and the huge thermal complex at Erding is under an hour away. Lazy afternoons on the English Garden lawns add to it.

In Florence itself, relaxation is limited to hotel spas and quiet early hours in the Boboli or Bardini gardens. The real rewards are further out: Montecatini Terme by train, the hot sulphur pools of Saturnia and Bagno Vignoni, or a few nights on a farm stay in the hills.