Interlaken or Lucca?

Interlaken's swimming happens in its two lakes. Lake Thun is the milder, with lidos and shingle beaches at Neuhaus, while Brienz has colder turquoise water and a bathing area at Bönigen. A swim there is a refreshing end to a mountain day in July or August, but not much more.

From Lucca you reach real sand. Viareggio is under half an hour by train, with wide, gently shelving beaches running up to Forte dei Marmi and free dunes at the Lecciona. It is still a half-day outing rather than a beach stay, but it gives you a proper afternoon by the sea.

Food is one of the clearer reasons to choose Lucca. In Interlaken the menus are built around fondue, raclette and rösti for visitors, plus a run of Indian and Asian places. The memorable meals happen at hut terraces and mountain dairies higher up, and many people simply picnic from the supermarket.

Lucca's trattorias inside the walls serve a rooted local cooking: spelt soup from the Garfagnana, tordelli in ragù, cecina from bakery counters, buccellato and wines from the nearby hills. The range is narrow, but here meals are part of the reason to come, not just fuel for the next outing.

The two barely compare here. Interlaken was built as a base for the mountains. Its sights amount to the row of grand hotels and the Kursaal on the Höheweg and a few timber houses in Unterseen, and for real old towns you take the train to Bern or Thun.

Lucca is a sight in its own right. Complete Renaissance walls surround a medieval street grid, with the carved Romanesque fronts of San Michele and the cathedral, the golden mosaic of San Frediano and the oval Piazza dell'Anfiteatro. Its museums are modest, but churches, towers and palaces easily fill two slow days.

Neither is a place for late nights, though Lucca's evenings have a little more to them. Interlaken goes to bed early before morning trains and paragliding flights, leaving a few backpacker pubs, a couple of basement clubs and the Kursaal casino.

An evening in Lucca means an aperitivo in a piazza, a long dinner and a stroll on the walls, and student wine bars are as lively as it gets. In summer, dancing means the beach clubs of the Versilia coast and a late taxi back.

This is Interlaken's whole case. The Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, the waterfalls of Lauterbrunnen and the railway to the Jungfraujoch above the Aletsch glacier all lie within an hour. Cable cars lift you straight onto high trails, and paragliding, canyoning, rafting and winter skiing all start from town. Only low cloud gets in the way.

Lucca offers good walking country rather than great scenery on the doorstep: the walls, the cycle paths along the Serchio and the olive-covered hills. The marble peaks of the Apuan Alps and the forests of the Garfagnana are about an hour north. They reward a few outdoor days in spring or autumn, but not a trip built around them.

Both make strong bases, but Lucca has more within reach. From Interlaken, trains and lake steamers put Bern's arcaded old town, Thun's castle, the lakeside castles at Spiez and Oberhofen and the Ballenberg open-air museum within easy range. Lucerne is a longer, scenic journey.

From Lucca, Pisa is half an hour away and Florence a little over an hour. Pistoia, the sculptors' studios of Pietrasanta and the villa gardens at Marlia and Collodi are all close, and the Cinque Terre and San Gimignano are possible on a long day. No Alpine base can match that many major Tuscan names so close together.

Interlaken works better with children, mainly because getting around is itself the fun. There are rack railways, gondolas and lake steamers, playgrounds and summer toboggan runs at the summit stations, the St Beatus caves and the farm animals at Ballenberg. Rainy days and high altitude for very young children are the weak spots.

Lucca is easy and free of traffic, and riding the walls on a family quadricycle is a highlight. The Pinocchio Park at Collodi and the beaches are nearby. Beyond those, its days are made of churches and palaces, which tire children faster.

Both are easy without a car, in different ways. Interlaken's strength is its reach. The small, flat town is walkable between its two stations, and from there mainline trains, mountain railways, gondolas and steamers connect neatly across the whole Jungfrau region. They get crowded only on the busiest summer routes.

Lucca's strength is the centre itself, which is flat, closed to traffic and best explored on foot or by bike. The station sits just outside the walls for trains to Pisa and Florence. Buses to the villas and hill villages are sparse, though, so those days are easier with a car.

Interlaken's Höheweg sells to tour groups: big watch and jewellery stores, army knives, cuckoo clocks, chocolate and outdoor gear, with Brienz woodcarving the one local craft worth seeking out. Lucca makes for a more enjoyable browse along Via Fillungo, with its Liberty-style shopfronts, delicatessens for olive oil and buccellato, paper shops and a monthly antiques market that is one of Italy's oldest. Neither is a serious shopping city, but in Lucca the shopping feels local.

Lucca is far easier on the budget. Interlaken charges full Swiss prices for beds, meals and drinks. The mountain railways, the Jungfraujoch above all, and the adventure sports push the cost of doing the region properly well beyond what most visitors expect, and hostels, picnics and transport passes help only so much.

Lucca costs what you would expect in central Italy. It is not cheap, and rooms are scarce in summer, but trattoria meals and trains are fairly priced, and the walls and many churches cost nothing.

Interlaken's stage is mostly seasonal and small: the amateur William Tell performed in the woods each summer, folklore evenings with alphorns and yodelling, and the occasional concert at the Kursaal. For an orchestra you go to Bern.

Lucca has Puccini, and that makes the difference. Short recitals of his arias are held in a central church for much of the year, and the Teatro del Giglio runs a full season of opera and concerts. Summer brings the Puccini Festival by the lake at Torre del Lago and large outdoor concerts in Piazza Napoleone.

Neither town has hot springs of its own, so the difference lies in pace and in what is nearby. Interlaken's centre is busy with coach groups and backpackers and geared to activity. Rest comes from the spas in the grand Höheweg hotels, the town's wellness area, slow steamer crossings and nights up in Wengen or Mürren.

Lucca is calmer from the start, with quiet streets, long lunches and evening walks on the walls. Real thermal water is close by: the belle époque baths of Montecatini and the cave pools of Monsummano are about half an hour away, and the steam grottoes of Bagni di Lucca are a little further.