Florence or Trieste?

Swimming is part of a normal day in Trieste and plays no part in Florence. Trieste's residents climb down ladders into clear water from the Barcola promenade, and the pebble coves at Sistiana and Duino and the bay at Grignano are a short bus ride along the coast. There is almost no sand, though, so it suits confident swimmers more than toddlers.

Florence is inland, and the sandy Versilia beaches are about an hour and a half away by train, so they take a whole day. In a hot Florentine summer, a hotel pool is the realistic way to cool off.

Florence eats better, mostly because of its depth: bistecca, ribollita, lampredotto from the carts, two serious markets, and family trattorie in the Oltrarno and around Sant'Ambrogio, with Chianti grown just outside town. The catch is the set tourist menus around the Duomo, which you need to walk away from.

Trieste's cooking is different in kind, closer to Vienna than to Tuscany. You get boiled pork and horseradish at the buffet counters, jota, sardoni, strudel, and a coffee culture with its own words for ordering. The farmhouse osmize on the Karst are a real treat, but the city has fewer restaurants and less fine dining.

Florence holds some of the most important art in Europe: Botticelli and Leonardo in the Uffizi, the David in the Accademia, Fra Angelico at San Marco and the Brancacci Chapel. There is enough to fill a week, and the big museums need booking ahead.

Trieste is more about atmosphere than masterpieces. You get Piazza Unità facing the sea, the Borgo Teresiano grid along the Canal Grande, the mosaics of San Giusto and the white Miramare Castle. Its most distinctive visit is the Risiera di San Sabba, the only Nazi camp on Italian soil to have had a crematorium, which is now a sobering memorial. Two or three days covers the city comfortably.

Neither city is for clubbing, but Florence has more going on after dark. Piazza Santo Spirito fills with drinkers on warm nights, a large student population keeps a few loud pubs busy, and outdoor bars open along the Arno in summer.

Trieste's evenings are quieter and older in mood. They start with a spritz on Piazza Unità or in Cavana, and in summer people move out to the kiosks along Barcola. On a winter weeknight the streets are mostly empty by midnight.

Trieste gives you more variety on its doorstep. The Strada Napoleonica runs along the cliff edge high above the gulf, Val Rosandra is a gorge for hiking and climbing, and the Grotta Gigante and the Škocjan Caves lie under the Karst. The sea also offers sailing, plus snorkelling in the Miramare marine reserve.

Florence's outdoors is gentler and more cultivated: olive terraces at Fiesole, cypress-lined lanes and vineyards in Chianti for cycling, and the Casentino forests further out. There's no sea, and summer heat cuts long walks short.

Florence is one of the best bases anywhere for day trips. Siena, Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano and Bologna are all within easy reach, and the Val d'Orcia towns are further south, so a week of outings never repeats itself.

Trieste is also a good base, but a more scattered one. Its trips spread across three countries: Aquileia's mosaics and star-shaped Palmanova in Friuli, Piran and the Postojna cave in Slovenia, and Istria by car. Venice is a long day out at about two hours each way.

Trieste is the easier city with children, mainly because it is calm. There is a small aquarium, a science centre, the Grotta Gigante and summer days by the sea at Barcola. The steep, stepped streets above the waterfront and the rocky swimming suit older children better than toddlers.

Florence's main sights are made for adults, and in summer the narrow pavements are crowded and the heat is fierce. Climbing the dome, the secret passages of Palazzo Vecchio and the Boboli Gardens are the best ways to get children interested.

Both are walking cities without a metro, and Florence is slightly easier. Its major sights sit within about twenty minutes of each other on flat ground, and Santa Maria Novella station is in the centre for trains to other towns. Crowds and hard stone paving are the main irritations.

Trieste's waterfront and Borgo Teresiano are flat, but the climb to San Giusto is long and stepped. On the other hand, it has something Florence lacks: boats across the bay to Muggia and along the coast, as well as buses up onto the Karst.

This is Florence by a long way. It has a living craft tradition: leather from the San Lorenzo stalls and small workshops, marbled paper, the goldsmiths of the Ponte Vecchio and the gilders and framers of the Oltrarno. Via de' Tornabuoni adds the big fashion names.

Trieste has ordinary chain clothing around Corso Italia and some atmospheric antique shops in the old town. Most of what's worth taking home is edible: freshly roasted coffee, Karst wine and presnitz.

Trieste is noticeably easier on the budget. Rooms are reasonable for most of the year, a buffet plate and a coffee at the bar cost little, and swimming at Barcola and walks on the Karst cost nothing.

Florence charges more for central hotel rooms and for admission to every major museum, and those fees add up over a few days. Street food, market lunches and walking everywhere help, as do staying across the river and visiting in winter.

The two are much alike: both are opera cities with a short list of venues and not much live music beyond them. Florence has more history, as the city where opera began, with the Teatro del Maggio and its long-running spring festival. The music most visitors actually hear, though, is the tourist concerts in its churches.

Trieste's Teatro Verdi has a full opera season, and the city keeps up a Habsburg taste for operetta that is rare in Italy. There is also Slovenian-language theatre, and open-air summer concerts in the San Giusto castle courtyard.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, and both rely on hotel spas. The difference is what lies nearby and how each city feels. From Florence, Montecatini Terme is under an hour by train, and the hot springs of Bagno Vignoni and Saturnia are within reach on a longer trip, so real thermal baths are easier to get to.

Trieste offers calm rather than treatments. Its slow pace, long sittings in coffee houses and sunset walks on the Molo Audace are restful in a way crowded summer Florence rarely is.