Genoa or Verona?

Genoa wins easily here, because it has the sea inside the city. The pebble cove at Boccadasse, the bathing platforms along Corso Italia and the rocks below Nervi's promenade make a daily swim easy, and the Riviera towns along the railway add better bays, with sand at Varazze.

Verona has no coast at all. Its swimming means the southern shore of Lake Garda, around Peschiera, Lazise and Sirmione's limestone shelves. The water there is calm and pleasant, but it is a day out rather than part of every afternoon.

Genoa has the more distinctive table, with the edge in street food and seafood. Focaccia at breakfast, trofie with pesto, and farinata and fried fish by the slice from old-town friggitorie make eating cheap and very Ligurian, and the Mercato Orientale shows off the region's produce.

Verona cooks the heavier food of the inland Veneto, such as Amarone risotto, bigoli with duck and bollito with pearà, served in wood-panelled osterie. Its real strength is the wine on its doorstep, from Valpolicella to Soave. It has little to eat on the street, though, and the cooking around the Arena is often tired.

Both cities are rich in sights, but the history is different. Genoa's is mercantile and vertical: shadowy caruggi below, the Rolli palaces of Via Garibaldi with their painted halls above, then San Lorenzo, the Lanterna and the marble sculpture of Staglieno. There is more of it than most visitors expect.

Verona's history is Roman and medieval, packed inside a bend of the Adige. It has the Arena, the hillside Roman theatre, the Scaliger tombs, San Zeno's bronze doors and Scarpa's Castelvecchio. It is the more compact of the two and can be seen properly in two or three days.

Neither city is made for a big night out, and in both the evening is built around aperitivo. Genoa's student bars around its own Piazza delle Erbe stay busy late at weekends, and in summer people head to the waterfront bars and beach clubs along Corso Italia.

Verona's spritz tables fill its Piazza delle Erbe and the riverside, and younger, cheaper bars cluster across the Ponte Pietra in Veronetta. On summer nights the opera crowd leaving the Arena keeps the centre awake past midnight.

Genoa has the more dramatic outdoors, with steep hills falling straight into the sea. A funicular climbs to the ring of ridge-top forts, the Portofino park has cliff paths down to San Fruttuoso, and the Cinque Terre trails are a train ride away. Boats also go out to look for whales and dolphins in the Pelagos Sanctuary.

Verona's surroundings are softer: vineyard walks and cycling in Valpolicella, the Adige cycle route and the pastures of the Lessinia. The big landscape is Monte Baldo above Lake Garda, about an hour away, with ridge walks and the strong winds that sailors and windsurfers come for.

Verona is the stronger base, and the range is what sets it apart. Venice, Padua, Vicenza and Mantua are all within about an hour by train, so a week can mix art cities, Garda harbours such as Sirmione and Malcesine, and wine cellars in Valpolicella and Soave.

Genoa's outings run mostly along a single coastline: Camogli, Portofino, Sestri Levante and the Cinque Terre to the east, and quieter Finale Ligure and Noli to the west. They are lovely, but they are similar to one another. Milan and Turin are the main inland alternatives.

The two are close for families, but they work differently. Genoa puts its best attractions in one place at the Porto Antico: the big aquarium, the science centre, the biosphere and a submarine to walk through, all reachable on foot. Away from the harbour, the steep stairs and dark lanes make hard work for anyone with a pushchair.

Verona's centre is flat and easy with a buggy, and the Arena tends to impress children. Its big family days are out of town, though, at Gardaland, the Parco Natura Viva safari zoo and the Garda water parks, and those usually need a car.

Both centres are best on foot, but walking them feels very different. Genoa climbs steeply from the water, and funiculars, a rack railway and public lifts do the hill work. A short metro line and the coastal railway reach Nervi and the Riviera, while the buses crawl through narrow streets.

Verona's centre is small, flat and mostly free of cars, so everything is a stroll apart, and there is no metro to learn. Trains run well to Venice, Milan and the lake, but Valpolicella and the Lessinia are much easier with a car.

Neither city is worth a dedicated shopping trip, and from both the serious shoppers go to Milan. Genoa's appeal is craft and food: silver filigree, coral, candied fruit and pesto from old-town shops, along with the arcades of Via XX Settembre.

Verona is slightly smarter on fashion, with Italian labels along the marble paving of Via Mazzini and boutiques on Corso Porta Borsari. The things to take home are Amarone, Garda olive oil and a pandoro.

Genoa is kinder to the wallet, and the difference lies mostly in where you sleep and how you eat during the day. A room near the old town costs less than one inside Verona's river loop, and lunch can be a slice of chickpea flatbread from a friggitoria, which Verona has no real equivalent of. Genoa's costs creep in elsewhere: a summer day in Portofino or Santa Margherita, and a paid lounger every time you want to swim.

Verona's pressure point is the bed, not the table. A glass of Valpolicella at a wine counter usually comes with a snack, and the student osterie of Veronetta are fair, but central hotels are steep for a provincial city and scarce on opera nights and during the big trade fairs. Sleeping near Porta Nuova or across the Adige, and eating away from Piazza Bra, takes the edge off.

Verona has the summer experience people plan trips around: grand Verdi and Puccini in the Roman Arena, with thousands of people on the stone tiers and candles lit at dusk. The Roman theatre adds Shakespeare, dance and jazz outdoors, and the Teatro Filarmonico carries on through the cooler months.

Genoa's programme is solid but less of a draw. It has opera and ballet at the Carlo Felice on Piazza De Ferrari, Italian-language drama, Paganini concerts and small clubs that keep the city's singer-songwriter tradition alive.

Verona is the better choice for unwinding. Sirmione's lakefront thermal pools, the warm spring-fed lake in a villa garden near Lazise and the old springs at Caldiero are all close, and the town itself runs at an easy pace, with river walks and the Giusti terraces.

Genoa has no spa tradition of its own. Its nearest thermal waters are at Acqui Terme, over an hour inland. The calm is found in Nervi's villa gardens and in long lunches in Riviera villages, while the centre stays noisy.