Lausanne or Verona?

Neither city has a coast, and both rely on a lake in summer, but in different ways. In Lausanne you swim in the city itself, from lawns, piers and pebble shores at Vidy and Bellerive, and the old Bellerive lido makes an easy afternoon.

From Verona you have to travel about half an hour to the southern shore of Lake Garda, where the water is a little warmer. There are lidos with sunbeds, and the flat limestone shelves at Sirmione are a favourite. Lausanne is better for a quick swim, while Garda is better for a whole day by the water.

Verona eats better from day to day. Its osterie around Piazza delle Erbe and in Veronetta serve risotto made with Amarone, bigoli with duck and bollito misto with peppery pearà, and Valpolicella, Soave and Bardolino are poured at counters all over town.

Lausanne's cooking is hearty Vaudois food: lake perch, papet vaudois and fondue in winter. Its strengths lie at the two ends. You can taste Chasselas in the Lavaux caveaux, and there are celebrated top-end tables, but the ordinary middle ground offers less than Verona's osterie.

Verona is a far richer place for sightseeing, because the whole centre inside the river loop is a monument in itself. You get the Arena on Piazza Bra, the Roman theatre on the hillside, San Zeno with its bronze doors and the Scaliger tombs, all in one walkable whole.

Lausanne has the Gothic cathedral, where a night watchman still calls the hours, and a small, steep old town, but its museums matter more than its streets. The Olympic Museum at Ouchy, the cluster of museums at Plateforme 10 and the Collection de l'Art Brut are the reasons to go.

Both cities are quiet at night, and they go out in different ways. Lausanne has actual clubs, stacked in the old warehouses of the Flon and full of university and EPFL students at weekends. Verona's evenings revolve around spritz and Valpolicella at tables in the piazzas, with livelier, cheaper wine bars in Veronetta and almost no dance floors in the centre. If you want to dance, Lausanne is better; if you prefer a long aperitivo outdoors, choose Verona.

Lausanne is in a different league outdoors. The French Alps rise straight out of the lake opposite the city, and the walk through the Lavaux terraces from Lutry to Saint-Saphorin is right on your doorstep. Within about an hour you can ski or hike at Villars and Les Diablerets, stand on the glacier at Glacier 3000 or walk the ridges of the Jura.

Verona's countryside is gentler. You can walk and cycle in the Valpolicella hills, follow the Adige valley north, and hike in the Lessinia beech woods. The real drama is an hour away at Monte Baldo and Garda's windsurfing coast, and the Dolomites are too far for a comfortable day.

Both are excellent bases with a train line doing the work, but Verona's choice of destinations is wider and more famous. Venice is just over an hour away, and Vicenza, Padua with Giotto's chapel and Mantua are closer still, with Garda's harbour towns and the walled town of Soave for a change of pace.

From Lausanne the trips are lakes, castles and Swiss old towns: Montreux and the Château de Chillon, Geneva, Bern and cheese-making Gruyères, plus a boat across to Évian. They make very pleasant days out, but they cannot match the major art cities within Verona's reach.

Both cities work well for children, but where the fun is differs. Lausanne keeps it in town: the hands-on Olympic Museum, the aquarium-vivarium, the animal park and pedal boats at Sauvabelin, and paddle steamers on the lake. The steep streets are the trade-off.

Verona's centre is flat and easy with a pushchair, and the Arena tends to fire children's imaginations. The bigger draws, Gardaland and the safari park at Parco Natura Viva, lie half an hour out and usually mean hiring a car.

Lausanne is easier to get around, even though it is built on a slope. The m2 metro climbs more than 300m from the lake at Ouchy up to the old town, buses and lake boats cover the rest, and fast Swiss trains leave from the centre.

Verona's strength is that you can walk it. The centre is flat and largely free of traffic, so everything sits within a short stroll, but there is no metro, and the station is about twenty minutes' walk away. Trains to Venice and Milan are good, but buses to the Valpolicella and the Lessinia are thin, so a car helps for those.

Verona is the better place for a browse. The marble-paved Via Mazzini is lined with Italian fashion labels, and Corso Porta Borsari adds smaller boutiques and shoe shops. Amarone, Garda olive oil and pandoro make good things to take home.

Lausanne's Rue de Bourg is the place for Swiss watches and chocolate, but beyond that the range is mostly familiar international chains. Neither is a shopping destination: serious shoppers in Verona head to Milan.

There is a wide gap in cost. Lausanne is expensive in every part of a trip, from hotel rooms and taxis to a simple lunch. Visitors on a budget rely on supermarket picnics and the free lakeside promenades.

Verona is middling. Students eat cheaply in the osterie of Veronetta, a glass at a wine counter comes with a snack, and walking costs nothing. The main expense is a room in the historic centre, especially on summer opera nights and during trade fairs, and staying across the river helps.

Verona has the bigger occasion. Grand productions of Verdi and Puccini play to thousands on the stone tiers of the Arena on summer nights, and in summer the Roman theatre adds Shakespeare and jazz under the stars. Out of season the programme in Verona is modest.

Lausanne is steadier through the year and stronger in dance, as home to the Béjart Ballet and the Prix de Lausanne. The Théâtre de Vidy stages contemporary work that tours Europe, and in July the Montreux Jazz Festival is a short train ride away.

Neither city has its own bathing tradition, and both have warm springs a short trip away: Yverdon-les-Bains and Lavey-les-Bains from Lausanne, Sirmione's lakeside thermal centre and the spring-fed thermal park near Lazise from Verona.

They differ in where you find the calm. In Lausanne it lies on the edges, in the grand hotel spas and on lakeside promenades, away from a steep and busy centre. In Verona it comes from the pace of the place: long lunches, an evening passeggiata by the river and the terraces of the Giardino Giusti.