Geneva or Milan?

Neither city is near the sea, but Geneva has the better swimming because its lake runs right through the centre. On summer days people dive from the Bains des Pâquis jetty in sight of the Jet d'Eau or lie on the lawns at Genève-Plage, and quieter village shores are a short boat ride away.

In Milan itself you are limited to the artificial Idroscalo basin near Linate and the public pools. For a proper swim you need to take a train for about an hour to the pebbly lidos of Como or Maggiore.

Milan is the better city to eat in. Its own dishes are saffron risotto, ossobuco and cotoletta, cooked with butter rather than olive oil, and because people come to the city from all over Italy you can also eat well from Naples to Sicily without leaving it. Aperitivo in Brera or Isola turns early evening drinks into a meal.

Geneva's table is French with a Swiss edge: lake perch fillets, fondue in wood-panelled brasseries, and Chasselas from the canton's own vineyards. The cooking is polished, especially in Carouge, but there is very little cheap, casual food to balance the prices.

Milan's sights are fewer than in some Italian cities, but they are of the first rank. You can walk among the spires on the Duomo roof, see the Last Supper and Brera's Italian paintings, and find Michelangelo's Rondanini Pietà in the Castello Sforzesco.

Geneva's heritage is of a different kind, built on Calvin's Reformation and modern diplomacy. It runs from St Pierre Cathedral and the Reformation Wall to the Palais des Nations, the Red Cross museum and CERN. It is interesting, but two or three days covers it, while Milan's leading museums give more depth.

Geneva is the quieter city at night. Its late bars are mostly in the Pâquis, a mixed and slightly rough district behind the station. Carouge adds wine terraces with a village feel, and the old squat-born centres at Jonction and Plainpalais put on alternative club nights. Weekends are fine, but on a weeknight there may be little going on after dinner.

Milan stays out later and gives you far more choice. Early drinks and snacks turn into crowded canal-side bars on the Navigli, a smarter crowd in Brera and a relaxed, mixed scene in Porta Venezia, which is also where the city's gay scene is centred. Later on there are dressy clubs near Corso Como, where you need to look the part to get in, or warehouse parties on the outskirts. August is the thin month, when many residents leave town.

Geneva has mountains on every horizon and reaches them quickly. The Salève cable car lifts you to limestone cliffs and paragliding just over the French border, the Jura has forest walks and cross-country skiing, and the high Alps around Chamonix are about an hour away.

Milan sits on the hazy, flat Po plain, and its green space is limited to a few parks and the canal towpaths out into the rice fields. The lakes and the Grigne ridges are good once you get there, but each outing starts with a train ride.

Both cities are excellent bases, but Milan has the edge because it sits on Italy's high-speed lines. Verona's arena, Turin's royal palaces, Bergamo's upper town and Bologna are all easy days out, with Mantua, Cremona, the Certosa di Pavia and the Borromean Islands behind them.

Geneva's outings are more about scenery. Lake steamers run to Lausanne, Montreux and the Château de Chillon past the Lavaux vineyard terraces, and on the French side there are Yvoire and Annecy.

For families the two cities are fairly even, though the attractions differ. In Geneva, the Natural History Museum's large animal dioramas, the small animal enclosures at the Bois de la Bâtie and rides on the yellow harbour boats suit younger children, but there is no zoo or theme park.

Milan has a science museum with a submarine and hands-on labs, a small aquarium by Parco Sempione, and Leolandia and Gardaland within reach for older children. The trade-off is heavy summer heat and grand sights that mostly appeal to adults.

Geneva is the slightly easier city to get around. The airport is only a few minutes by train from the main station, the harbour boats are part of the same network as the trams, and you can walk the centre from the station to Carouge.

Milan has a real metro, with five colour-coded lines, plus old orange trams through a flat centre. However, the transfer from Malpensa airport is long and the underground stations get stifling in summer.

Geneva is clearly the weaker shopping city of the two, and only a buyer after a fine Swiss watch or serious jewellery has reason to prefer it, on and around the Rue du Rhône. Beyond that, browsing means the chocolatiers of the Old Town, Carouge's small craft workshops and the antiques and bric-a-brac of the Plainpalais flea market. For everyday buying, plenty of Genevans simply cross into France.

Milan is far stronger, and for many visitors the shopping is reason enough for the trip. In Milan style runs through the city as a whole. The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II makes a visit to the shops feel like a visit to a monument, La Rinascente beside the Duomo has set the standard for Italian taste for more than a century, and Brera's independent boutiques suit a slower afternoon. At weekends, antique stalls line the Navigli canals.

Neither city is cheap, but Geneva is one of the most expensive places in the world to visit, and even a glass of wine is costly there. Free city museums, the transport pass that hotel guests receive and sleeping across the border in France all help a little.

Milan is pricey by Italian standards, especially in hotels during fashion weeks and in Brera's restaurants. Still, office-worker lunch menus, fairly priced transport and an aperitivo that can stand in for supper keep a stay noticeably lighter than in Geneva.

Milan has La Scala, one of the world's great opera houses, whose season opens each December on the feast of Sant'Ambrogio. Gallery seats give a determined visitor a way in. The Piccolo Teatro, a fine symphony orchestra at the Auditorium and big summer concerts at San Siro fill out the calendar.

Geneva holds its own for a city of its size, with opera and ballet at the Grand Théâtre, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in the gilded Victoria Hall, and concerts in a former pumping station in the middle of the Rhône. In summer the balance shifts somewhat, with open-air concerts in Geneva while Milan's opera season slows down.

Geneva is the more restful of the two, helped by an orderly pace and very calm Sundays. In winter the Bains des Pâquis becomes a sauna and hammam where regulars plunge straight into the cold lake, and the spa towns of Évian and Divonne are close by.

Milan is a work-focused city. It has a thermal spa complex with outdoor pools and the restored 1930s Bagni Misteriosi for a summer afternoon, but for real quiet most visitors take the train to the lakes.