Lausanne or Lucca?

Lausanne sits right on Lake Geneva, and in summer locals swim from the lawns, piers and pebble shores at Vidy, Bellerive and towards Lutry. It is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon, but the shores are narrow and grassy, and the water is warm enough for only a few months.

Lucca is inland, yet a short train ride to Viareggio brings you to proper sandy beaches that run north to Forte dei Marmi. Choose between rows of beach-club umbrellas or the wilder, pine-backed dunes of the Lecciona. For a real day at the beach, Lucca is clearly better. For a quick dip without leaving town, Lausanne's lakefront is closer.

The two are fairly level, but they suit different meals. Lausanne gives you lake perch, papet vaudois and winter fondue, and above all Chasselas tasted with the growers in the Lavaux caveaux. Some of Switzerland's most celebrated tables are in and around the city, although the everyday middle is ordinary.

Lucca is better for daily eating. It has rustic farro soup, tordelli in ragù, cecina from bakery counters and buccellato, served in family trattorias at fair prices. It has little ambitious modern cooking, though, and after a few days the menus begin to repeat.

Lucca has the stronger historic setting. Its complete Renaissance walls enclose a medieval town full of towers and churches, from the carved arcades of San Michele in Foro to the oval Piazza dell'Anfiteatro. Simply walking around is the main event.

Lausanne's old town around the Gothic cathedral is compact and steep. Its strength is its museums: the Olympic Museum at Ouchy, the cluster at Plateforme 10 and the Collection de l'Art Brut. If you love museums you will find more indoors in Lausanne, where Lucca's own museums are modest.

Lausanne goes out much more. Thanks to its large student population, the Flon fills its old warehouses with clubs and late bars at weekends, and the lakeside at Ouchy is busy on summer evenings.

Evenings in Lucca mean aperitivo in a piazza, a long dinner and a stroll on the walls, and the centre is calm by midnight. If you want to dance, you have to go to the Versilia beach clubs and get a late taxi back.

Lausanne has the bigger landscape. The French Alps rise straight out of the lake opposite the city, and the UNESCO-listed Lavaux terraces make a great walk just east of town. The Vaud Alps, with skiing, summer trails and Glacier 3000, are about an hour away, and the Jura is just as close.

Lucca's countryside is gentler, with olive groves and villa gardens, plus cycling on the walls and along the Serchio. Its drama is the Apuan Alps, with their marble quarries and limestone peaks. There is also good birdwatching at Lake Massaciuccoli, but the summer heat on the plain limits outdoor days.

Both are excellent rail bases, but Lucca's day trips include more famous names. Pisa is half an hour away and Florence just over an hour, and there are the Marlia and Torrigiani villas, Pietrasanta's sculptors' studios, and the Cinque Terre or San Gimignano for an early start.

From Lausanne, the trips are smaller but very smooth. You can take a short train to Montreux and the Château de Chillon, go to Gruyères, Bern or Geneva, or cross the lake by boat to Évian, all without a car. Several of Lucca's villas and hill villages are much easier with one.

Lausanne has more made for children. They get the hands-on Olympic Museum, the aquarium-vivarium, the animal park, pedal boats and lookout tower in the Sauvabelin woods, and paddle-steamer trips on the lake. The downsides are the steep streets with a pushchair and the cost of feeding a family.

Lucca's flat, traffic-free centre is relaxing with young children, and cycling the walls on a family quadricycle is the classic outing. With the Pinocchio Park at Collodi and the beaches close by, the days fill well. In the town itself, though, most sights are churches.

There is little between them, but the two centres feel very different on foot. Lausanne climbs steeply in layers, and the m2 metro carries you more than 300m up from the lake to the old town. In Lucca, everything inside the walls is flat, and walking or cycling is the natural way to move.

Beyond town, Lausanne's Swiss trains and lake boats reach almost everything. Lucca's trains serve the main towns well, but buses into the countryside are sparse.

Neither is a shopping destination, and what you take home differs. In Lausanne it is a Swiss watch from Rue de Bourg, chocolate from an old confiserie or a bottle of Lavaux wine.

In Lucca, Via Fillungo has fashion behind Liberty-style shopfronts, and the delicatessens sell olive oil, farro and buccellato. One weekend a month, one of Italy's oldest antiques markets fills the streets around the cathedral, which gives Lucca the more distinctive browse.

This is where the two differ most. Lausanne is very expensive in every respect: hotels, meals, wine and taxis. Budget travellers here picnic on the lake promenades and keep restaurant dinners for special occasions.

Lucca costs what central Italy costs, which is less than Florence and far less than Switzerland. Trattoria meals and trains are fairly priced, and the walls and many churches are free. Accommodation is the main expense, and staying just outside the walls often saves money.

Lausanne has the wider stage life, led by dance. The Béjart Ballet and the Prix de Lausanne are based here, the Théâtre de Vidy presents contemporary theatre with an international reputation, and the city also has an opera house and a respected chamber orchestra. The Montreux Jazz Festival is a short train ride away.

Lucca focuses on Puccini. Short recitals of his arias are held in a church in the centre for most of the year, and the Teatro del Giglio has an opera season. In summer there is open-air Puccini by the lake at Torre del Lago, and big concerts fill Piazza Napoleone.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, and both send you out of town for warm water. From Lausanne you can go to Yverdon-les-Bains or Lavey-les-Bains. From Lucca you can go to Montecatini's belle époque spa buildings, the cave pools at Monsummano or the steam grottoes of Bagni di Lucca.

What differs is where the calm is. In Lausanne you find it in grand hotel spas and on the lakeside edges, away from the steep centre. In Lucca it is in the traffic-free town itself, with long lunches and evening walks on the shaded walls.