Genoa or Lyon?

Genoa has the sea at its door: the pebble cove at Boccadasse, the bathing establishments over the rocks along Corso Italia and the swimming platforms below Nervi's promenade. Better beaches lie a short train ride along the Riviera. Expect pebble, coarse sand and paid loungers rather than open strands of sand.

Lyon is inland, so there is hardly a comparison to make. The supervised lake at Miribel-Jonage is where locals cool off. Annecy and the Lac du Bourget make a lovely day out, but swimming is not part of a stay in Lyon.

Both are serious places to eat, but Lyon goes deeper. It has the cluttered bouchons and the fine-dining tradition left by the Mères and the city's famous chefs. Add Les Halles Paul Bocuse, with Beaujolais and the northern Rhône close by, and it covers everything from rustic to grand.

Genoa's strength is narrower and more casual: pesto where it was invented, focaccia dunked at breakfast, and farinata and fried fish from the old friggitorie. Genoa is the better city for cheap street food, Lyon the one for a long and ambitious lunch.

These are two old cities of similar depth, but they differ in kind. Genoa is about lanes and palaces: the shaded maze of the caruggi, the Rolli palaces on Via Garibaldi with their painted halls, and the marble sculpture of Staglieno.

Lyon covers a longer stretch of history, from the Roman theatres on Fourvière to Renaissance Vieux Lyon and its traboules. Its Musée des Beaux-Arts is the stronger single collection. Genoa rewards aimless wandering, while Lyon rewards a museum plan spread over several days.

Lyon has more going on after dark. There are wine and cocktail bars across the Presqu'île and barges on the Rhône that turn into bars and clubs, and warehouse-style electronic clubs towards Gerland and the Confluence.

Genoa is quieter and older. Its evenings centre on aperitivo around Piazza delle Erbe and the university lanes, with waterfront bars and beach clubs in summer. It is a city for a late glass of wine in a medieval square, while Lyon is the one for a night out that runs into the small hours.

Genoa's outdoors is steeper, wilder and closer to hand. A funicular to Righi puts you on the fortress trail above the port, and the Portofino promontory has cliff paths down to San Fruttuoso. The Cinque Terre trails are a train ride away, and whale watching in the Pelagos Sanctuary adds the sea.

Lyon's green life is gentler: running and cycling on the car-free Rhône quays, boating in the Parc de la Tête d'Or and easy walks in the Monts d'Or. Its serious hiking in the Vercors and Chartreuse needs a car and an hour or more.

Both make strong bases, and Genoa has the edge with a single railway line of famous names. Camogli, Portofino, Sestri Levante and the Cinque Terre lie to the east, Noli and Finale Ligure Borgo to the west, and Milan and Turin are also within reach.

Lyon's day trips are about wine and old towns: Roman Vienne twenty minutes away, medieval Pérouges, the Beaujolais villages, Cluny and Beaune. Choose Genoa for a string of coastal villages, Lyon for vineyards and abbeys.

The two are close for families, but the fun is arranged differently. Genoa packs it into the Porto Antico, where the large aquarium, the science centre and the walk-through submarine at the Galata can fill a day. Away from the harbour, the steep, dark lanes and the shortage of parks make things harder.

Lyon spreads it out, with the free zoo, pedalos and pony rides in the Parc de la Tête d'Or, dinosaurs at the Musée des Confluences and Guignol puppet shows. Genoa has swimming coves nearby, while Lyon has the green space and a flatter centre.

Lyon is the easier city to get around. The Presqu'île is flat, and four metro lines, trams and buses on one ticket cover the rest, along with bike share and riverside cycle paths.

Genoa works on foot in the old town and around the port, but it climbs steeply from the water, has only one metro line and its buses are slow. The funiculars and public lifts are a pleasure, and the coastal train is its best link to Nervi and the Riviera.

Neither city is a shopping destination, but Lyon offers more. It has luxury labels around Place des Jacobins, a large mall at Part-Dieu, silk from its weaving past and designer workshops on Croix-Rousse.

Genoa's arcaded main streets carry the familiar Italian names. Its best buys are in the old town: candied fruit, olive oil, pesto and silver filigree from small workshops.

Genoa is the cheaper of the two from day to day. A trattoria lunch comes at a fair price, a snack from the old-town lanes costs very little, and a ride on the funiculars or public lifts is cheap, where Lyon's metro and trams are only moderately priced. Genoa's costs rise with summer and the coast, in the smart Riviera towns and with a paid lounger on every beach day.

In Lyon the expensive times depend on events, not the season. Rooms become scarce and dear during the big trade fairs and the Fête des Lumières in December, and are reasonable for a large Western European city the rest of the year. The bargain is a midday meal in a neighbourhood bistro, while an evening out costs more than it would in Genoa.

Lyon is the better choice for evenings at the theatre. It has an opera house under a glass vault, the Orchestre National and the grand Théâtre des Célestins. Above all it has dance, at the Maison de la Danse and the Biennale. In summer, the Nuits de Fourvière stages performances in the Roman theatres above the city.

Genoa has the Carlo Felice for opera and ballet, concerts in honour of Paganini and a singer-songwriter tradition in small clubs. That is enough for a night or two.

Neither city is a real place to unwind, and both send you out of town for thermal water: from Genoa to Acqui Terme, from Lyon to Aix-les-Bains on the Lac du Bourget.

The calm in each city is different. In Genoa it means Nervi's promenade and villa gardens and long lunches in the Riviera villages. In Lyon it means a Sunday morning by the Saône, the Parc de la Tête d'Or and the open-air pool on the Rhône quays, away from the kind of port traffic that keeps central Genoa busy.