Lucerne or San Marino?

Neither city sits on a beach, but San Marino has the sea within easy reach. Rimini and Riccione lie below the mountain, with miles of sand, rows of umbrellas and shallow water. In high summer the Adriatic is warmer than Lake Lucerne by several degrees, which makes it a real beach day out rather than a quick dip.

Lucerne's swimming is a different pleasure. You bathe in clean, calm lake water from the Lido, the old wooden baths or the lawns at Ufschötti, with mountains behind. It is close to the centre, so you can swim between sights, but there is no sand and the season is only a few weeks long.

Neither city is worth the trip for its food, but the cooking is very different. Lucerne serves Swiss alpine comfort food: fondue, rösti, lake perch and the creamy Chügelipastete, eaten in wood-panelled guild houses or on terraces along the Reuss. It is reliable and well made, but it costs a lot.

San Marino eats like the Romagna around it, with hand-rolled pasta, passatelli, piadina and its own small-vineyard Sangiovese. The summit terraces sell the view more than the cooking, so the better meals are down in Borgo Maggiore or over the border.

Lucerne has more to see and more depth. Besides the Chapel Bridge, the Water Tower and the Musegg towers, there is the Lion Monument, the Rosengart Collection with its Picasso and Klee, the Bourbaki Panorama and Wagner's villa at Tribschen, enough for a full day or two.

San Marino's appeal is the town as a whole. The walled crest of Monte Titano, the clifftop towers of Guaita and Cesta, and the Palazzo Pubblico where the Captains Regent take office tell the story of a very old republic. It is memorable, but most visitors have seen it by lunchtime.

Lucerne is no party town, but it does have evenings out: wine bars along the river, a few cocktail bars and a small club scene around the Neustadt, and the all-night street party of Fasnacht once a year. San Marino has almost none of this. After the coaches leave, there is a quiet drink on a terrace above the lights of the coast, and anyone wanting a late night drives down to the Riviera clubs in Rimini.

This is where the two cities differ most. Lucerne sits on a branching lake beneath real mountains. Pilatus rises to 2,128m and is reached by the world's steepest cogwheel railway, Rigi has long ridge walks, and Titlis has a glacier about an hour away. You can do boat, rail and hike in a single day.

Monte Titano is a 740m limestone ridge with fine views to the Adriatic and woodland paths down to Borgo Maggiore. The Montefeltro hills beyond are gentle farmland that suits cycling or a drive, not serious hiking, and there are no adventure sports nearby.

Both make good bases, and Lucerne is the easier one. Zurich, Bern and Basel are each under an hour by train, and the lake steamers run to the Rütli meadow and the William Tell country around Altdorf without any planning.

San Marino's list is just as tempting: the fortress of San Leo, Renaissance Urbino, the mosaics of Ravenna and the castle at Gradara. Apart from the bus to Rimini, though, you will need a car, so the outings take more organising.

Lucerne is easier with children. The Swiss Museum of Transport can fill a whole day, the Glacier Garden and the Goldau wildlife park add more, and the cogwheel trains and paddle steamers are part of the fun. The flat riverside centre is easy with a pushchair.

San Marino's towers and battlements thrill children for a morning, and the cable car is a treat, but the steep streets and steps are hard work with small children. The real family attractions, Italia in Miniatura, Fiabilandia and the waterparks, are down on the coast and need a car.

Lucerne is far easier to move around. Step off the train and the Chapel Bridge and the steamer quays are a few minutes away on foot, and the riverside streets are level. Only the lanes up to the Musegg Wall ask for any effort. Buses, boats, trains and the mountain railways all work on one ticket system, so you can reach the summits without ever hiring a car. Linking a steamer to a cogwheel train takes a look at the timetable first, but after that the connections hold.\n\nSan Marino asks more of your legs and of your planning.

The old town is compact, about half an hour from one end to the other, but it is built on a slope, and stairways join many of the lanes. A cable car takes you down to Borgo Maggiore, and the bus up from Rimini, which meets the Italian trains, is the only dependable way in without a car. Buses to the surrounding villages are too infrequent to plan a day around, so most visitors drive.

Lucerne has the stronger offer, though it is narrow. The big watch and jewellery houses around Schwanenplatz are the main draw, alongside Swiss chocolate, army knives, a few independent boutiques in the Old Town and the Saturday market by the river.

San Marino's lanes mostly sell souvenirs: decorative crossbows, ceramics, liqueurs, and stamps and coins for collectors. Lower taxes bring Italians up for perfume and spirits, and there is an outlet centre in the valley, but there is little of real quality.

There is a big gap here. In Lucerne almost everything is expensive, from central hotels and simple restaurant meals to the mountain railways and cable cars you came for. A Swiss travel pass and supermarket picnics by the lake soften the cost a little, but cannot make it cheap.

San Marino is priced like provincial central Italy. Only the summit hotels and view terraces charge extra, and staying a few kilometres down the slope brings prices back to normal.

For music, Lucerne is far ahead. The Lucerne Festival brings leading orchestras to Jean Nouvel's lakefront hall, known for its acoustics, and outside the festival the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and the city theatre keep opera, drama and dance on the calendar all year.

San Marino has a small theatre, the odd local concert and open-air music in summer. Its highlight is the Medieval Days festival of costumed musicians and flag-throwers. For opera, you would go to Pesaro or Bologna.

Lucerne gives you more ways to unwind, even without thermal baths of its own. The best place for a soak is Mario Botta's mineral bath high on the Rigi, about an hour away by boat and cogwheel train, with views across the peaks. Closer in, the old wooden lake baths are a simple summer pleasure, and an afternoon on a steamer watching the shore go by is about as restful as sightseeing gets.

San Marino has a few hotel spas and no bathing culture, so its calm comes in the evening, when the day visitors have gone and you can walk the walls above the plain. For thermal spas you would make a separate outing to the Romagna coast or the Apennine valleys.