Genoa or Zermatt?

Genoa has real sea swimming inside the city: the pebble cove at Boccadasse, the bathing establishments along Corso Italia and the platforms below Nervi, with clear water that stays warm through the summer. The Riviera towns are a short train ride away. The shores are pebbly and crowded at weekends, but a daily swim is easy.

Zermatt has nothing like it. There is no sea and no bathing lake, and the tarns stay too cold for swimming even in August. A hotel pool is the only option, so plan any beach days for another part of the trip.

Genoa eats far better, and more cheaply. Breakfast is focaccia, lunch is trofie with pesto, and the old-town friggitorie sell farinata and fried fish. The harbour trattorias serve good seafood with Vermentino to drink, and the Mercato Orientale is worth a browse.

Zermatt's cooking is narrower and costs more. It is Valais food, such as raclette, fondue and air-dried beef, and it is best eaten on a chalet terrace at Findeln or Zum See with the Matterhorn in view. Outside the ski and hiking seasons many kitchens close.

The gap here is wide. Genoa has one of Europe's largest medieval quarters, the UNESCO-listed Rolli palaces on Via Garibaldi holding Van Dyck and Rubens, the striped cathedral of San Lorenzo and the marble sculpture of Staglieno. That is enough for several full days.

Zermatt's heritage fills a morning. You can see the Matterhorn Museum on the first ascent of 1865, the mountaineers' cemetery and the old larch barns of the Hinterdorf. The Gornergrat railway is historic too, but people come for the peaks.

Neither suits a big night out, but Genoa has more to do after dark: aperitivo in the small bars around Piazza delle Erbe, drinks by the water at the Porto Antico and Foce, and beach clubs along the coast in summer. Zermatt's evenings depend on the season, with loud and expensive après-ski in winter, early nights among summer hikers, and little open in between.

For a city, Genoa has good walking. There is the fortress trail above Righi, the cliff paths of the Portofino promontory down to San Fruttuoso, the Cinque Terre by train and whale watching in the Pelagos Sanctuary.

Zermatt is on another level. The Matterhorn rises over the village, and the lifts reach glacier terrain at over 3,800m, with skiing in winter and some pistes open even in summer. Once the snow melts there are hundreds of kilometres of marked trails, with marmots and ibex. For serious hiking, climbing or skiing, Genoa cannot compete.

Genoa is by far the better base for excursions. Camogli, Santa Margherita and Portofino are under an hour away on one railway line, and the Cinque Terre take a little longer. Milan and Turin are each about an hour and a half away, close enough for a museum day.

From Zermatt every outing starts with the long train down the valley, and the reward is modest: Sion's castle hills and vineyards, Brig's Stockalper Palace, or Saas-Fee by bus. Most visitors spend their spare days back on the mountain instead.

Genoa has more to fill children's days, mainly at the Porto Antico. The aquarium, the science centre, the glass biosphere and the Galata museum's walk-through submarine are all side by side, and there are funiculars and swimming coves too. Away from the harbour, steep stairs and dark lanes make pushchairs hard work.

Zermatt's car-free streets make it calmer and safer to walk with children. It suits families who ski or hike together, with ski schools at Sunnegga in winter and marmot walks in summer. But there is no aquarium or other big attraction, rainy days are hard to fill, and the highest viewpoints can be too cold and thin-aired for small children.

Getting around is easier in Zermatt. It is a compact, car-free village where you walk or take an electric taxi, and the cog railway, funicular and gondolas are a short walk from the centre. The effort goes into getting there by train from Täsch, and leaving the valley takes over an hour.

Genoa's old town and harbour are walkable but climb steeply, so the funiculars, public lifts and single metro line help, while the buses are slow. The coastal railway is the link that matters most, and a car is more trouble than it is worth.

Genoa is better for browsing, though not for serious fashion. It has the arcades of Via XX Settembre and the Galleria Mazzini, and old-town shops selling candied fruit, pesto, olive oil, silver filigree and coral. Zermatt has one main street of Swiss watch boutiques, souvenir shops and excellent ski and mountaineering outfitters, which is useful if you need gear but has little else to find.

Genoa is far kinder on the wallet, a mid-range city that feels good value for Italy. A trattoria lunch in the old town and a train along the coast to Nervi barely register. The costs that grow are by the sea in summer, when a lounger at a Corso Italia bathing establishment or lunch in Portofino or Santa Margherita adds up quickly.

In Zermatt, the expense comes with the reason for going. The lift pass or the Gornergrat ticket is the main daily cost for skiers and summer walkers alike, and a terrace lunch at Findeln is a treat to plan for rather than a habit. Peak ski and hiking weeks are the dearest, and sleeping down the valley in Täsch, with a shuttle up to the village, is the usual way to make a longer stay affordable.

Genoa has a proper opera house in the Teatro Carlo Felice, with a season of opera, ballet and symphony concerts, as well as Paganini concerts and small clubs that keep its singer-songwriter tradition alive. Zermatt has no theatre or concert hall, and its music comes mainly from two festivals: Zermatt Unplugged in spring and chamber music in late summer. Outside those weeks, an après-ski band is about all there is.

Zermatt is the more restful choice. It has clear air, no traffic noise and many hotel spas with pools and saunas facing the mountains, some of them open to non-residents. Neither place has thermal springs of its own.

Genoa's centre is full of port traffic and crowded lanes. Calm there means the villa gardens and promenade at Nervi, a slow lunch in a Riviera village, or the thermal waters of Acqui Terme a little over an hour away.