La Spezia or Zurich?

Neither city has a beach in the centre, but La Spezia has the sea and more choice. There is sand and pebble at San Terenzo and Lerici, there are rocky coves with very clear water off Portovenere and Palmaria, and Monterosso's long sandy stretch is a train ride away. The swimming season also lasts into early October.

Zurich swims differently, from the lawns, piers and wooden bathing houses along the lake, or by drifting down the Limmat at Letten. It's a lovely end to a summer day of sightseeing, but the season is short and there is no sand. For a trip built around swimming, La Spezia wins.

Both cities eat well, but in very different ways. La Spezia's food is humble and local: farinata from wood ovens, mussels from the gulf, pesto on trofie and testaroli, the covered market on Piazza Cavour and crisp Cinque Terre whites. It has little fine dining and not much food from elsewhere.

Zurich is the reverse. It has veal with rösti in old guild houses, fondue in winter, outstanding chocolate, a proper fine-dining tier and international places around Langstrasse. What it lacks is markets and street food, and every meal there costs a lot.

Zurich gives a culture lover more to see. The Kunsthaus, the Swiss National Museum and the Rietberg hold serious collections. The Altstadt has real history too, from the Grossmünster, where the Swiss Reformation began, to Chagall's windows in the Fraumünster.

La Spezia is a nineteenth-century naval town of arcaded streets and Liberty facades, with no medieval core. The Museo Amedeo Lia and the stele statues in Castello San Giorgio are worth a visit. Most of the region's heritage, though, lies out in Portovenere, Sarzana and Luni rather than in town.

After dark Zurich is the clear choice. Its electronic music scene runs deep, with clubs in Kreis 4 and 5 and Zurich West open until morning at weekends, Langstrasse as a late and rough-edged strip, and the Street Parade every August. Only the price of a round holds it back.

La Spezia's evening is an aperitivo on Via del Prione or the seafront. In summer it may move on to the Lerici waterfront, and then it's an early night before a morning on the trails.

Both are superb bases for the outdoors, but the landscapes could hardly be more different. La Spezia is all sea cliffs: the vine terraces of the Cinque Terre, the Sentiero Azzurro and quieter ridge paths, the Palmaria loop and kayaking or diving in the gulf. The marble peaks of the Apuan Alps lie inland.

Zurich looks to the lake and the mountains. The Uetliberg is on the edge of town, and Rigi, Pilatus and the Glarus valleys are within about an hour. It also has a winter season, with ski days at Flumserberg, which the Ligurian coast cannot offer.

Both are excellent hubs, and the difference is in range. From La Spezia the trips are short and coastal: the Cinque Terre villages are minutes away by train, Portovenere is a short boat ride off, Sarzana and Luni are inland, and Pisa and Lucca are about an hour away.

Zurich reaches across the country. Lucerne, Bern, Basel and St Gallen are each about an hour away, the Rhine Falls and Stein am Rhein lie to the north, and Swiss trains make all of them simple. Pick La Spezia to visit a string of seaside villages, or Zurich to tour several different cities.

Zurich is much easier with children. The zoo with its Madagascar rainforest hall, the shallow lake lidos, the Technorama in Winterthur and the transport museum in Lucerne can fill several days, and the trams take buggies without fuss.

La Spezia is safe, its flat centre is easy with a pushchair, and boat trips and the sheltered sand at San Terenzo work well. But it has no zoo or aquarium, and its main draws are steep villages and crowded trains, so it suits older children better than toddlers.

Neither city needs a car, but Zurich makes getting around almost effortless. Trams, the S-Bahn, funiculars and lake boats all run on one ticket, services are punctual, and the airport is a short train ride away.

La Spezia's flat centre is easy on foot, and its trains, buses and summer ferries serve the Cinque Terre and the gulf well. The weak point is summer, when the coastal trains and village platforms get crowded.

Zurich has real shopping. Bahnhofstrasse runs from the station to the lake past watchmakers, jewellers and department stores, there are design shops in the viaduct arches of Zurich West, and the Niederdorf has antique shops. None of it is cheap.

La Spezia has chain stores along Via del Prione and Corso Cavour. The best things to buy there are to eat and drink: pesto, olive oil and Sciacchetrà.

This is the biggest difference between the two. La Spezia is a mid-priced Italian town where farinata, trattoria meals and local trains are fair value, and rooms cost less than in the Cinque Terre villages, though summer stays and park passes add up.

Zurich is one of the most expensive cities in the world to visit, with simple hotels, casual lunches and drinks all costly. Supermarket picnics, the free lidos and the visitor card help a little, but the same budget goes much further on the Ligurian coast.

Zurich's stages go well beyond what you'd expect of a city its size. It has the Opernhaus for opera and ballet, the Tonhalle Orchestra and the Schauspielhaus, with jazz and indie at the Rote Fabrik and the Theater Spektakel by the lake in summer.

La Spezia has the Teatro Civico and a long-established summer jazz festival, with open-air concerts in piazzas and castle courtyards. The rest of the year there is little on, and for opera you have to go to Genoa or Pisa.

Zurich offers more ways to unwind. There are thermal pools and a rooftop bath in the vaults of the old Hürlimann brewery, and in winter the wooden lake bathing houses become saunas, with cold dips between sessions. Baden's hot springs, used since Roman times, are twenty minutes away by train.

La Spezia has no bathing tradition of its own, only hotel spas and the small baths at Equi Terme an hour inland. You relax there by slowing down instead, with a long lunch in Tellaro or a quiet day on Palmaria away from the summer crowds.