Graz or Padua?

Neither city is a place to plan a beach vacation around, but Padua at least has the sea within reach. Sottomarina and the Lido of Venice are about an hour away, with calm, shallow Adriatic water that suits small children, even if the long rows of umbrellas are practical rather than pretty.

Graz has no coast at all. Swimming there means the former gravel-pit lakes south of town, Schwarzlsee above all, with grassy banks and jetties. They are a fine escape on a hot afternoon, but they are not a day at the seaside.

Both cities build their food around regional cooking and morning markets, so they differ in flavour rather than quality. Graz is all about Styrian produce: pumpkin seed oil on almost everything, cold fried chicken in salad, and crisp white wines drunk at rustic Buschenschank taverns in the vineyards to the south.

Padua cooks Venetian home food, such as bigoli with duck sauce and baccalà, and the evening often starts with a spritz taken standing in Piazza delle Erbe. Eating here is more social and spills into the squares, while Graz leans towards inns, coffee houses and outings to wine country.

Padua has the deeper heritage. Giotto's frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel are a turning point in European painting, and other fourteenth-century fresco cycles nearby make up a UNESCO-listed group. Add the pilgrimage Basilica of Saint Anthony with Donatello's bronzes, and a university that keeps the oldest permanent anatomical theatre and botanical garden of their kind.

Graz has a beautifully kept old town of arcaded courtyards and red roofs. It also has the extraordinary armoury of the Landeszeughaus, Baroque Schloss Eggenberg and the blue Kunsthaus for modern contrast. That fills two satisfying days, but nothing in Graz carries the weight of the Scrovegni Chapel.

Both are student towns that go out in a relaxed way and go noticeably quiet in the summer break, so neither is a clubbing destination. Padua's evening is the aperitivo, with crowds standing over spritz glasses in the squares around the Palazzo della Ragione until late. Graz is more of a bar crawl through the lanes of the Bermuda Triangle and the artier bars of Lend, with a handful of clubs staying open late at weekends.

Graz has the better outdoors because it sits where the Alps meet the hills. The Schöckl has a cable car, trails and paragliders. The Bärenschützklamm gorge climbs past waterfalls on ladders, and the limestone peaks of the Gesäuse and Hochschwab give proper alpine hiking within about two hours.

Padua lies on a flat plain, so its countryside is gentler. The volcanic Euganean Hills, about 15km away, have vineyards, chestnut woods and roads popular with cyclists, and towpaths along the Brenta make easy rides. For real mountains you need a car and an hour and a half to reach Monte Grappa or the Asiago plateau.

This is where the two cities differ most. From Padua, Venice is under half an hour by train, so you can visit it several times and sleep somewhere calmer. Vicenza's Palladian buildings, Verona, Treviso, Bologna and Ferrara are all within about an hour, and the villas of the Brenta and the walled towns around the Euganean Hills are closer still.

Graz's outings are rural and slower: the South Styrian Wine Road, Riegersburg castle on its crag, the vast library at Admont Abbey, and Maribor across the Slovenian border. These are lovely trips, but most need a car and none compares with having Venice on your doorstep.

Graz does much more for children. Families ride the glass lift up the Schlossberg and come down by a long underground slide, and the Märchenbahn train runs through fairytale scenes inside the rock. FRida & freD, a children's museum in the Augarten, adds hands-on exhibitions, and the Schöckl has summer toboggan runs.

Padua is safe, flat and welcoming to children in its trattorias, and Prato della Valle is a good place to run about. Beyond that the city offers little made for children, so families end up driving to Gardaland or the Adriatic to fill the days.

The real difference lies outside the city. From Graz, the vineyards, castles and mountains are much easier with a car. Padua's main-line station puts Venice, Vicenza, Verona and Bologna within quick reach by train.

Inside town the two are much alike, with flat centres that are largely closed to traffic and easy to walk or cycle. Graz has trams on one simple ticket, a lift and a funicular up the Schlossberg, and level cycling along the Mur. In Padua, arcades keep off the rain and the summer sun, a tram links the station with Prato della Valle, and nearly every sight is within a 20-minute walk.

Neither city is worth the trip for its shops, and overall they come out about level. The difference is in what you go home with. In Graz the best buys are regional: oil, wine and fruit brandies from the Styrian countryside, and traditional dress for anyone who wants a piece of Austrian costume. Lend, across the river, is the place to browse for something one-off from a small studio.

Padua suits the shopper who wants clothes and shoes. Its arcades make it easy to drift from one Italian shop to the next whatever the weather, and the morning market stalls in the old squares double as the place to pick up food to take home. Neither city has much in the way of luxury labels, so in both, shopping fits between sights rather than filling a day.

Padua is the somewhat cheaper stay. Its hotels are reasonably priced as a base for the whole region, and a standing spritz with market food or a trattoria meal costs little, so a week of day trips from here is good value.

Graz is fair rather than cheap. Student lunch menus and bakeries keep daytime eating affordable, but sit-down dinners and wine cost what they usually do in Austria.

Graz takes performance far more seriously. Its Opera is the second largest house in Austria and runs a full season of opera, ballet and operetta. Styriarte brings early and classical music in early summer, steirischer herbst brings avant-garde work in autumn, and the music university feeds a strong jazz scene.

Padua's programme is modest: theatre and some opera at the horseshoe-shaped Teatro Verdi, and chamber concerts in the Sala dei Giganti and the basilica. For major opera, visitors take the train to the Fenice in Venice or to the summer Arena in Verona.

Padua has one of Europe's largest thermal districts almost on its edge. At Abano Terme and Montegrotto Terme, about 12km away, hot mineral water and mud have been used since Roman times, and many spa hotels take day visitors. That makes a soak after a morning of frescoes easy to arrange.

Graz has no bathing tradition of its own. It is still a gateway to Styria's spa villages, such as Hundertwasser's Bad Blumau and Loipersdorf, but these are about an hour away and work better as a separate day out.