Florence or Zurich?

Neither city has a beach of its own, but Zurich makes far more of its water. In summer the lake and the Limmat become the city's swimming pool, with wooden bathing houses, lawned lidos and river baths where you drift with the current, all close to the old town.

Florence has nothing like it. Cooling off means a hotel pool or a public pool on the outskirts, and the sandy Versilia beaches near Viareggio take a full day's round trip by train. If a swim after sightseeing matters, Zurich delivers it, and if you want real sand, add a few nights on the Tuscan coast instead.

Florence is the stronger food city by some way. Its cooking is rooted in bistecca, ribollita, lampredotto from street carts and the produce stalls of the Mercato Centrale and Sant'Ambrogio, with Chianti vineyards on the doorstep and good trattorie in the Oltrarno once you leave the tourist menus near the Duomo.

Zurich eats well but more cautiously: veal in cream sauce with rösti, fondue in guild houses, and outstanding chocolate and confectionery from its old tea rooms. It has little street food or market culture, and every meal costs a lot, so for eating as a reason to travel, Florence wins easily.

This is where Florence leaves Zurich far behind. It holds the Renaissance itself: Brunelleschi's dome, the Uffizi, Michelangelo's David, the Bargello, the Pitti Palace and smaller treasures like the San Marco frescoes and the Brancacci Chapel, enough for a week of close looking.

Zurich's culture is solid and pleasant rather than world-famous. The Kunsthaus, the Swiss National Museum and the Rietberg are fine museums, and the Grossmünster and the Chagall windows of the Fraumünster give the Altstadt real character, but two or three days covers it.

Zurich is the city for a proper night out. Its electronic music scene runs deep, with clubs in Kreis 4 and 5 and the old industrial halls of Zurich West going until morning at weekends, and Langstrasse keeping late hours. The drawback is the cost of every round.

Florence's evenings are about aperitivo, wine bars and crowds with glasses in hand on Piazza Santo Spirito, plus summer bars along the Arno. It is sociable and relaxed, but the club scene is small and the night ends early. Choose Florence for long dinners and Zurich for dancing.

Zurich has the bigger landscape. The lake with the Glarus Alps at its far end, shore paths, the Uetliberg ridge a short train ride away and high mountains like Rigi and Pilatus within an hour make it a natural base for hiking in summer and skiing in winter.

Florence's countryside is gentler and more cultivated: olive terraces at Fiesole, the view from Piazzale Michelangelo, cypress lanes and vineyards in Chianti for walking and cycling, and the forests of the Casentino further out. It is lovely in spring and autumn, but it is farmland and hills rather than mountains.

Both are superb bases, but Florence edges ahead on the quality of what lies nearby. Siena, Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano, Volterra and the Chianti villages are all close, with Bologna under forty minutes by fast train, though a car helps for the hill towns and wineries.

Zurich's strength is ease. Lucerne, Bern, Basel, St Gallen and the Rhine Falls are all a comfortable train ride away with no car needed. The towns are attractive, but the Tuscan list has more places you would cross a continent to see.

Zurich is much the easier city with children. It is clean, safe and orderly, the zoo with its Madagascar hall and elephant park is a full day in itself, the lake lidos have shallow water and lawns, and the Technorama in Winterthur and Lucerne's transport museum are easy outings by train.

Florence welcomes children but is built around adult interests. Climbing the dome, the secret passages of Palazzo Vecchio, the Museo Galileo and the Boboli Gardens help, as does the Pinocchio park at Collodi, but crowds, narrow pavements and summer heat wear young children down.

Florence has no metro and barely needs one. The Duomo, the Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio and the Pitti Palace are all within about twenty minutes of each other on foot, and trams to the airport and small buses up to Fiesole cover the rest. The catch is the walking itself. Narrow pavements, summer crowds and stone paving tire you out, and the restricted traffic zone makes a car useless until you set off for the hill towns.

Zurich makes getting around easier. Blue trams, S-Bahn trains, the Uetliberg railway, funiculars and even the lake boats all run on one integrated ticket, the services keep to time, and the airport is a short train ride from the main station. You can give your feet a rest whenever you like, which Florence rarely lets you do.

The two are broadly level but shop in different ways. Florence is about craft: leather from market stalls and small workshops, marbled paper, goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio and the gilders and restorers of the Oltrarno, with Via de' Tornabuoni for the fashion houses.

Zurich is about luxury and precision. Bahnhofstrasse lines up watchmakers, jewellers and department stores, Swiss chocolate is the obvious souvenir, and the viaduct arches in Zurich West hold design shops. Come to Florence for something handmade and to Zurich for a watch.

Neither is cheap, but Florence is far kinder to your budget. Hotels in the centre and museum fees add up, yet street food, market lunches, house wine and walking everywhere keep daily costs reasonable, especially if you stay across the river or come in winter.

Zurich is among the most expensive places in the world to visit. Simple rooms, casual lunches and drinks all cost far more than in Florence, and supermarket picnics by the lake and the free lidos only soften the blow.

Zurich offers the fuller evening programme. The Opernhaus is one of Europe's leading opera houses, the Tonhalle Orchestra plays in a fine nineteenth-century hall, and the Rote Fabrik and venues in Kreis 4 and 5 bring jazz, indie and electronic acts through the year.

Florence has the deeper history, as the city where opera was born, and the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with its spring festival. Most visitors, though, end up at chamber concerts in churches staged for tourists, and outside the classical season the stage is quiet.

Zurich makes it easier to unwind without leaving town. The thermal baths in the vaults of the old Hürlimann brewery have a rooftop pool, the wooden lake houses become saunas in winter with cold dips between sessions, and Baden's hot springs are twenty minutes away.

Florence has little inside the city beyond hotel spas, and its centre is crowded in high season. Its rewards lie further out, at the old spa town of Montecatini Terme, the sulphur pools of Saturnia and Bagno Vignoni, or a few slow nights on a farm stay in the hills.