Florence or Zagreb?

Neither city is a place to swim, and both leave the sea for a separate stay. The difference is in what you get on the day. From Florence a train reaches the sandy Versilia beaches near Viareggio in about an hour and a half, with rows of rented loungers. Zagreb's Adriatic is about two hours away by road, but the city has its own summer swimming at the pebbly shores of Lake Jarun and at Bundek, which is handy for a hot afternoon.

Florence eats better. Bistecca alla fiorentina, ribollita, lampredotto from the carts and the Mercato Centrale and Sant'Ambrogio markets make food one of the main reasons to visit, and Chianti Classico vineyards start just outside town. The catch is the set tourist menus around the Duomo, which is why the Oltrarno trattorie are worth seeking out.

Zagreb's cooking is heartier and narrower in range, closer to Central Europe: štrukli, turkey with mlinci, Zagorje sausages. Dolac market is a pleasure in the morning, and coffee on a Lower Town terrace is more of a local ritual than any meal. Fine dining is limited to a handful of serious kitchens.

This is where the two are furthest apart. Florence is the Renaissance city: Brunelleschi's dome, Botticelli and Leonardo in the Uffizi, David in the Accademia, Fra Angelico's frescoes at San Marco and the Brancacci Chapel, enough for a week of serious looking, with queues and bookings to match.

Zagreb's heritage is pleasant rather than world-famous. The medieval Upper Town with St Mark's tiled roof, the Austro-Hungarian Green Horseshoe and museums such as the Mimara, the Naive Art collection and the Museum of Broken Relationships fill two unhurried days, and Mirogoj cemetery is one of the city's best sights.

The two are broadly level, with relaxed evenings in both and no great club scene. Florence revolves around aperitivo, wine bars and the crowd with drinks in hand on Piazza Santo Spirito. Zagreb has a café-bar culture that turns from coffee to drinks along Tkalčićeva, plus craft beer bars in the Lower Town courtyards and lakeside clubs at Jarun in summer, which give it a little more room for dancing.

Both have green country on the doorstep, but of different kinds. Around Florence it is cultivated and gentle: olive terraces at Fiesole, the cypress lanes and vineyards of Chianti for walking and cycling, and the Casentino forests further out.

Zagreb's outdoors is wilder close to town. The beech-wooded Medvednica range starts at the city edge, with marked trails, mountain huts and even a small ski slope in snowy winters, and the lakes and waterfalls of Plitvice make a long but popular day.

Florence has one of the best sets of day trips anywhere. Siena, Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano, Volterra and the Chianti villages are all close, Bologna is a short high-speed train ride away, and the Val d'Orcia towns reach further south. You could spend a week without repeating yourself.

Zagreb's surroundings are pleasant without a headline destination. The Zagorje hills have Trakošćan castle and Marija Bistrica, baroque Varaždin and little Samobor are easy, and Ljubljana is possible as a long day. It is a good choice of outings, but on a smaller scale than Tuscany.

Zagreb is the easier city with children. Its flat Lower Town, parks, trams that take pushchairs, the zoo in Maksimir, the Tesla technical museum and the short funicular give younger children plenty to do, and the lakes give a place to swim in summer.

Florence asks more of a family. The great sights are made for adults, the pavements are narrow and crowded, and high summer is very hot. Climbing the dome, the Palazzo Vecchio secret passages and the Boboli Gardens help, and Collodi's Pinocchio park is the classic outing.

Florence edges ahead because almost everything is within about twenty minutes on foot, so most visitors barely need transport. Its central station also makes rail day trips simple. Zagreb's centre is compact too, but sights are spread a little wider, so the dense web of blue trams and the funicular to the Upper Town do more of the work. In both cities a car is only worth having for the countryside.

Florence is a real shopping destination, built on craft. Leather workshops, marbled paper, the goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio, the Oltrarno artisans and the luxury houses of Via de' Tornabuoni all give you something worth taking home, as long as you look closely at the San Lorenzo stalls.

Shopping in Zagreb is everyday: chains and local fashion along Ilica, malls on the edge of town and little luxury. The souvenirs have charm, though, from licitar hearts and Croatian neckties to Dolac produce and the Sunday flea market at Britanski trg.

Zagreb is the cheaper of the two by some distance. Central apartments, trams, museum entry and simple local food are all reasonably priced, though upmarket restaurants and cocktails cost what they would further west.

Florence is expensive for its size, mainly because of central hotel rooms and admission fees to the main museums and the Duomo. Street food, market lunches, house wine and walking everywhere help, and staying across the river or visiting in winter makes the biggest difference.

Both cities have a full season of opera, ballet and orchestral concerts, so the difference is in reputation and in what goes on around the season. Florence's classical life has more international standing: this is where opera began, and the spring Maggio Musicale festival draws audiences from abroad. Most visitors, though, hear their music at chamber programmes in churches and palaces, and the plays at the Pergola are rarely in a language they follow.

Zagreb's classical offer is similar in scale, shared between the Croatian National Theatre and the Lisinski hall, home of the Zagreb Philharmonic, but it is far less known outside Croatia. It covers more beyond the classics, with operetta at the Komedija, jazz and rock clubs, courtyard concerts in the Upper Town and a large rock festival at Jarun. That makes it easier to find an evening out once the opera season is over.

Neither city has its own bathing tradition, so in both the soaking happens outside town. Florence has the more memorable options: the grand old spa halls of Montecatini Terme under an hour by train, the open-air sulphur pools of Bagno Vignoni and Saturnia, and the Tuscan farm stay as a way to slow down.

Zagreb's spas are the Zagorje resorts of Tuheljske, Krapinske and Stubičke Toplice, practical places where locals go for a weekend soak. Its real advantage is the calm of the city itself, with long café mornings and quiet Upper Town lanes, where summer in Florence's centre can feel crowded.