Lausanne or Pisa?

Pisa has a real coast. About 12km west, Tirrenia and Calambrone have long sandy beaches backed by pines, and the water is shallow and warm in midsummer, which suits paddling. Most of the shore is rented beach establishments, and the water near the Arno mouth is rarely clear. The Versilia beaches are a short train ride further north.

Lausanne only offers lake bathing: grassy lawns, steps and shingle at Vidy and Bellerive, with a season that barely covers the summer. Both cities treat swimming as an afternoon off, but in Pisa the afternoon is spent on sand.

Neither city is a food destination, but they eat very differently. Lausanne cooks Vaudois food, perch from the lake, papet and fondue, and wine makes the meal: tasting Chasselas in a Lavaux caveau is the real pleasure. It also has a celebrated top tier for one special dinner, while cheap meals are hard to find.

Pisa is the reverse: simple Tuscan cooking, hot cecina from wood ovens and student-priced trattorias around Piazza delle Vettovaglie, with little at the top end.

Pisa has the greater sight. The cathedral, baptistery, Leaning Tower and Camposanto standing together on one lawn rank among Italy's finest ensembles. Beyond the square are Piazza dei Cavalieri, Santa Maria della Spina on the river and medieval painting at San Matteo.

Lausanne's interest lies more in its museums than its streets. Above the steep old town stands the Gothic cathedral, where the night watchman still calls the hours. The rest is the Olympic Museum at Ouchy, the Plateforme 10 galleries and the distinctive Collection de l'Art Brut. Each city takes two or three days, but Pisa's highlight is far more famous.

Both are quiet, student-driven towns after dark, but the style differs. Lausanne has an actual club district in the Flon, where clubs and late bars fill old warehouses on Friday and Saturday nights, though drinks are expensive. Pisa has few clubs; its evenings are about drinking outside small bars in the market squares and taking aperitivo on Borgo Stretto. In summer, Pisa's evenings move out to the beach bars on the coast.

Lausanne's setting is far more dramatic. The French Alps rise straight out of the lake opposite, the Lavaux terraces make a superb walk, and within an hour you can be skiing, hiking or standing on the glacier at Glacier 3000, with the Jura on the other side for cycling and cross-country skiing.

Pisa's outdoors is flatter and gentler: the pine forests, wetlands and dunes of San Rossore, where you will often see fallow deer, easy cycling on the plain and olive-terrace paths on the Monte Pisano. The Apuan Alps and the Cinque Terre paths are an hour or more away.

Both are excellent bases, but Pisa's day trips are bigger names. Florence is an hour away by train, Lucca under half an hour, the Cinque Terre a little over an hour, and Siena, Volterra and San Gimignano are within reach by car.

Lausanne's rail network makes its trips just as easy. The Château de Chillon, Gruyères, Bern's arcaded old town and Geneva are all an easy train ride away, and a boat crosses to Évian. Lausanne's trips feel more like Alpine countryside and small towns, while Pisa's lead you to some of Italy's most famous art cities.

Lausanne is the better place to spend a week with small children. It is safe, clean and relaxed, and on summer afternoons the lawns and pools at Bellerive and Ouchy give children room to swim and run about while parents sit by the lake. The hills are the daily obstacle. Even with the metro, a pushchair is hard work on the stairs and slopes, and feeding a family in restaurants costs a great deal.

Pisa works the other way round. It is flat and compact, easy to cross with a buggy, and the tower lawn and the gelato in the old-town squares keep children happy for a while. Once the tower photo is taken, though, very little in the city is made for them, and younger children are not allowed up the tower. The best family days are spent cycling or riding in San Rossore, and you need to plan around the midsummer heat and the crowds in the cathedral square.

Lausanne climbs a steep hillside and Pisa lies on a flat plain, and that shapes every day of a stay. In Lausanne, stairs, bridges and lifts link the levels, and the m2 metro climbs more than 300m from the lake at Ouchy to the upper town. Most visitors ride up and walk back down.

Pisa is a city for walking. From the station, along Corso Italia, across the Arno and up to the cathedral square takes about half an hour, and the level streets suit a bike. Its airport is unusually close, linked to the station by a short shuttle train. You don't need a car in either city.

Lausanne has slightly more to buy. Rue de Bourg is the place for Swiss watches, jewellery and chocolate, and you can pick up a bottle of Lavaux wine, though the range is narrow overall. Pisa's Corso Italia and the arcades of Borgo Stretto are everyday Italian high streets, enlivened by the monthly antiques market by the river. In both cities, serious shoppers end up elsewhere, and from Pisa that means Florence or Lucca.

This is the widest gap between the two. In Lausanne, hotels, meals, wine and taxis all cost far more than almost anywhere in Europe, and budget visitors live on supermarket picnics and free lakeside walks.

Pisa is moderately priced, with mid-range rooms, cheap trattorias and a centre you can walk. The main extra costs are the tower climb and the beach loungers in summer.

Lausanne has the much richer stage for its size. It is home to the Béjart Ballet and the Prix de Lausanne, the lakeside Théâtre de Vidy is known across Europe for contemporary work, and the opera and chamber orchestra run full seasons. Montreux's July jazz festival is a short train ride away.

Pisa's evening out is the Teatro Verdi, a charming 19th-century horseshoe theatre for opera and concerts from autumn to spring, and for bigger productions people go to Florence.

Neither city has its own bathing culture, so both rely on springs just outside town. From Lausanne, Yverdon-les-Bains and Lavey-les-Bains, Switzerland's hottest springs, are easy by train, and the grand lakeside hotels have large spas. Pisa's equivalent is San Giuliano Terme, used since Roman times, in an 18th-century bath palace. Pisa's calm comes from its small scale, while in Lausanne you find it on the lakeshore and among the vines.