Ljubljana or Pisa?

Ljubljana has no coast of its own. A summer swim means the Sava, Lake Bled about an hour away, or a longer trip to Piran, where the shore is mostly concrete platforms and small pebble strips.

Pisa is far better placed. Sandy coves at Marina di Pisa are about 12km away, and the long pine-backed sands of Tirrenia and Calambrone have shallow water that is easy for children to paddle in. Most of this coast is given over to rented umbrella-and-lounger establishments, and the water near the river mouth is rarely very clear, but an afternoon at the beach is easy to fit around sightseeing.

The two cities are evenly matched at the table, but the food is quite different. Ljubljana cooks Alpine and Central European dishes such as Carniolan sausage, štruklji and jota stew, and its real strength is wine: Vipava, Brda and orange wines poured by the glass along the river.

Pisa's cooking is plain Tuscan, with ribollita, game, salt cod and the hot chickpea flatbread cecina, best eaten in the student trattorias around Piazza delle Vettovaglie. In Pisa, eat well away from the tower. In Ljubljana, head for the Central Market and the riverside wine bars.

Pisa has the stronger sights, because the Piazza dei Miracoli puts a cathedral, baptistery, the Leaning Tower and the Camposanto together on one lawn, a set piece Ljubljana cannot match. Beyond it, Piazza dei Cavalieri, Santa Maria della Spina and the medieval painting in San Matteo reward a second day.

Ljubljana's appeal is the whole townscape rather than one great monument. Plečnik's bridges, colonnades and library, the baroque old town and the castle on its hill make a pleasant walk, but the museums are modest. Both cities take about two days to see.

Both are student towns where evenings mean drinks outdoors rather than big clubs. The difference is in the late hours. Ljubljana has Metelkova, the former barracks where scruffy little clubs run late at weekends.

Pisa's nights are a crowd in the piazzas around the old market and aperitivo on Borgo Stretto, then a move to the beach bars in summer. The city goes quiet out of term.

Ljubljana has much more landscape on its doorstep. You can climb Šmarna Gora before breakfast, reach the Kamnik Alps in about 40 minutes and Triglav National Park in about an hour, then add rafting on the Soča, the Vintgar gorge, the karst caves and winter skiing.

Pisa's outdoors are gentler. The San Rossore park of pine forest, wetland and dunes begins at the city's edge and is good for cycling and spotting deer, and Monte Pisano has olive-terrace paths. For proper mountains you go further out to the Apuan Alps or the Cinque Terre cliffs, and summers on the plain are humid.

Pisa is the better base for day trips. Florence is about an hour away by train, Lucca under half an hour, and the Cinque Terre a little over an hour, all without a car. Volterra, San Gimignano and Siena are within reach by road.

Ljubljana's trips are good too. Bled, Škofja Loka, Predjama Castle, Idrija and Piran are all close, and Trieste and Zagreb are about two hours away. Its destinations are smaller places than Pisa's, though, and a car helps more often.

With children, the real difference is where the fun happens. Ljubljana keeps it in town: the funicular up to the castle, the dragons on the Dragon Bridge, a small zoo on a wooded hill, a science centre and a puppet theatre whose shows need no Slovene. Neither city has anything large built for children, and both centres are small and flat enough for pushchairs.

Pisa has less to offer in the centre beyond running about on the tower lawn, and younger children are not allowed up the tower. Its family days happen out of town, on the sands of Tirrenia and Calambrone or riding bikes and horses in San Rossore, with the midsummer heat to plan around.

Both cities are easily walked, but they work differently once you want to leave. Ljubljana's car-free centre has electric shuttles and bike-share, but trips out mostly mean intercity buses or a hired car, as the railway is slow.

Pisa is the better rail base. A shuttle train links the airport to the station, which is a hub for western Tuscany, and the walk from the station to the tower takes about half an hour.

Neither city is a shopping destination. Ljubljana's best buys are local goods: pumpkin-seed oil, coastal salt and honey from the Central Market, Idrija lace and the Sunday flea market on the embankment.

Pisa has more ordinary high-street shopping, with chains on Corso Italia and smarter shoe and clothes shops under the arcades of Borgo Stretto. Serious fashion means a trip to Florence.

Costs are much the same, but the money goes on different things. In Ljubljana, set lunch menus and cheap sights keep daily spending down, but central summer rooms cost as much as in Western Europe.

Pisa's rooms are mid-range, and student trattorias are good value. The extra costs are the tower climb, the cafés beside it, and the beach establishments' charges for umbrellas and loungers in summer.

Ljubljana is clearly the stronger choice for an evening of music. It has a philharmonic with roots in 1701, a national opera and ballet, the Cankarjev dom arts centre and the summer Ljubljana Festival in the Križanke courtyard, with alternative gigs at Metelkova as well.

Pisa depends almost entirely on the Teatro Verdi. Its autumn-to-spring season makes a charming night of Italian opera in a historic house, but there is little else, and bigger productions mean going to Florence.

Both cities feel restful because they are small and quiet, and neither has a bathing tradition within the city itself. Pisa's thermal springs are closer, with San Giuliano Terme's Roman-era waters and 18th-century bath palace just beyond the city.

Ljubljana has an indoor water park with saunas on its eastern edge. Slovenia's mineral-spa towns are mostly about an hour's drive away.