Genoa or Rovinj?

Neither is a place for sand: both mean pebble and rock. Rovinj has the swimming right on its doorstep, with several kilometres of limestone ledges and coves in the Golden Cape park, swims off the stones below the old town walls, and taxi boats to St Catherine and Red Island when you want more room.

In Genoa the sea runs alongside the city rather than being the reason to come. You get the little cove at Boccadasse, the bathing platforms along Corso Italia and the rocks at Nervi, while the better bays at Camogli or Sestri Levante are a train ride away. Expect rented loungers and crowded summer weekends on the Riviera, and pack water shoes for the urchins in Rovinj.

Genoa eats better and more cheaply day to day. Breakfast is focaccia, pesto comes from its home kitchens, and the old town friggitorie sell farinata and fried fish by the slice. The Mercato Orientale shows off what Liguria grows.

Rovinj's strengths are Istrian truffle pasta, scampi buzara, Malvazija wine and a handful of ambitious kitchens. But the harbour is lined with menus for passing visitors and there is little street food, so the best meals often mean a drive to a konoba inland.

This is where the two differ most. Genoa has a whole city's worth of sights: the shaded caruggi of its medieval centre, the UNESCO palaces of Via Garibaldi and Via Balbi with their painted halls, the striped cathedral, the Lanterna and the sculpture of Staglieno. That is enough for several days.

Rovinj is really one very pretty sight: pastel Venetian houses climbing to St Euphemia, whose bell tower is worth the climb. Add a small town museum and the Batana House, and one slow afternoon covers it.

Neither is a clubbing town, but Genoa has more going on after dark. Students and locals keep the small bars around Piazza delle Erbe busy until late at weekends, and the Porto Antico and Corso Italia add waterfront drinking. In Rovinj the evening is a long dinner and a drink on the rocks at sunset. The old town is mostly quiet by midnight, and outside summer there is very little open at night.

Genoa has the more dramatic outdoors. A funicular takes you up to the fortress trail above the port, the Portofino promontory and the Cinque Terre paths are reachable by train, and the Apennines rise behind the city. Boats also go out to look for whales and dolphins in the Pelagos Sanctuary.

Rovinj is gentler and closer to the water. There are flat paths through the Golden Cape pines, kayaking and diving around the archipelago, and the steep green channel of the Lim Fjord a short drive north. It is fine country for cycling and paddling, but there are no mountains to climb.

Genoa's advantage is the railway. Portofino, Camogli and the Cinque Terre are east along one line, Noli and Finale Ligure Borgo are to the west, and Milan and Turin are each about an hour and a half away, all without a car.

Rovinj has fine places of its own nearby: Pula's Roman amphitheatre, the mosaics of Porec and the hill towns of Motovun and Groznjan. There are fewer famous names within reach, though, there is no train, and most of these trips need a hire car.

Genoa has the bigger draw for children, all in the Porto Antico. There is the aquarium, one of Europe's largest, along with the science centre, the glass biosphere and a submarine to walk through at the Galata museum. The downside is the old town's steep, dark lanes and the many stairs, which are hard going with a pushchair.

Rovinj is small, safe and shady, with flat paths in the Golden Cape park and family resorts with pools. But there is little made for children in town, and the rocky shore means water shoes and close watching.

You explore both centres on foot, and both have steep lanes. Genoa adds funiculars, public lifts, a short metro line and, most usefully, the coastal railway, so Nervi and the Riviera towns are easy to reach without a car.

Rovinj's car-free old town and waterfront promenade cover everything in town. Beyond it there are only intercity buses, and the hill towns and wineries really need a car.

Genoa at least has proper shopping streets. Via XX Settembre runs under long arcades, Via Roma and the Galleria Mazzini carry the smarter Italian labels, and in the old town long-established shops sell candied fruit, pesto and olive oil next to workshops making silver filigree and coral. Even so, there is little luxury depth, so it is better for browsing than for a whole trip built around shopping.

Rovinj has no fashion streets or department stores. What it does well is the region in a jar or bottle: truffle products, Istrian oil, Malvazija and Teran, lavender and local brandy, along with the galleries and artists' studios on Grisia. Outside summer even that thins out.

Genoa is easier on the budget. Focaccia and farinata cost very little, central hotels are cheaper than in Italy's best-known cities, and the funiculars cost little to ride. Costs climb mainly in the Riviera resorts and when you rent a lounger.

In July and August, Rovinj charges what a sought-after Mediterranean resort charges, and harbourside fish sold by weight soon adds up. Apartments, campsites, and visiting in late spring or September bring the cost down.

Genoa has a real if modest stage life: opera, ballet and concerts at the Teatro Carlo Felice, an established drama company that plays in Italian, Paganini concerts and small singer-songwriter clubs. Rovinj has summer concerts in St Euphemia, music on the harbour and occasional bitinada singing, and almost nothing outside the season. For big summer shows, people go to Pula's arena.

Calm in Genoa means going to find it. Nervi, at the eastern edge of the city, has a seafront promenade and villa gardens that feel a long way from the port. For real thermal waters you go to Acqui Terme in the Piedmont hills, a little over an hour away, so a spa day is an outing rather than part of your routine.

Rovinj is the easier place to wind down, because the quiet starts outside your door. The catch is July and August, when the old town lanes and the harbour fill up and you have to walk further along the shore, away from the centre, to find room to yourself.