Lucerne or Siena?

Neither city is a beach destination, but in Lucerne you can at least swim close to your hotel. The Lido, the old wooden lake baths and the lawns at Ufschötti give you a summer dip in clean water with mountains behind it, though you swim from grass and jetties, not sand.

Siena has no water of its own. Swimming means a pool at your hotel or agriturismo, or a full day out to the Maremma coast around Castiglione della Pescaia, which is well over an hour away by car.

Siena is the place to eat well. Hand-rolled pici, ribollita, cinta senese pork and a baking tradition of panforte and ricciarelli give it cooking with deep local roots. Chianti Classico, Brunello and Vino Nobile are all made nearby, and the best meals are in family osterie in the contrade.

Lucerne serves sound Swiss dishes, from Chügelipastete to fondue and lake perch in the guild-house taverns. The range is narrow, though, and many places near the Chapel Bridge cater to coach groups. Neither city has much international food.

Siena has far more to see. Its whole medieval centre is UNESCO-listed. The Campo, Lorenzetti's frescoes in the Palazzo Pubblico, the Duomo's inlaid floor and Duccio's Maestà make two or three days of first-rate art and architecture.

Lucerne's sights are fewer and quicker to see: the Chapel Bridge and Water Tower, the towers of the Musegg Wall, the Lion Monument, and the Picasso and Klee works of the Rosengart Collection. It is a handsome old town to walk through more than a city of great paintings, and a day or two covers it.

Both towns go quiet early, and neither suits a big night out. Lucerne has a little more going on after dark, with cocktail bars and a small club scene in the Neustadt and near the station. At Fasnacht the whole town is out in costume until dawn.

Siena has almost no clubs. Its evenings are wine on the Campo and a few student pubs. Its one great late night comes with the Palio, when the contrade eat together outdoors and the streets stay full.

Lucerne's setting is far more dramatic. A branching lake is ringed by peaks, Pilatus, Rigi and the Stanserhorn are reached by cogwheel train and cable car, and the glacier on Titlis is about an hour away. That means real mountain walking in summer and skiing in winter, with low cloud as the one risk.

Siena's countryside is gentler: the clay hills of the Crete Senesi and the UNESCO-listed Val d'Orcia, best explored by bike on the strade bianche or on foot along the Via Francigena. It is beautiful farmland, but there are no high mountains or wild country.

Siena has the richer choice close by. San Gimignano, Monteriggioni, the Chianti villages, Volterra, Pienza, Montalcino and Montepulciano are all near, with abbeys such as Monte Oliveto Maggiore and San Galgano in between. Florence is about an hour and a quarter away. The catch is that most of these places really need a car.

Lucerne has fewer outings, but they take no effort. Fast trains reach Zurich, Bern and Basel in under an hour, and boats run down the lake to the Rütli meadow and Altdorf, so every trip works without a car.

Lucerne is the better bet with children. The Swiss Museum of Transport gives them a full day of hands-on trains, planes and a planetarium. The Glacier Garden and the Goldau wildlife park are close, and the safe riverside and lakeside lawns make breaks easy. The limits are rainy days and the cost of the mountain trips.

Siena welcomes children in every trattoria, and older ones enjoy climbing the Torre del Mangia. There is nothing built for them, though, and the steep streets are tough with a pushchair. Many families stay at a farmhouse with a pool instead and come into town for half days.

Getting around Lucerne takes almost no effort. The station, boat piers and Old Town sit together on the lakefront, and most walks are short and flat. Steamers, trains and cable cars all run on one integrated ticket system, so you never need a car.

Siena's centre is just as compact, but it is much harder on the legs. It spreads over three ridges with stepped lanes, and escalators climb up from the station. Beyond the walls the trains are slow and infrequent, so most visitors hire a car for the hill towns.

Lucerne has more pull for one kind of buyer. Watch and jewellery houses line Schwanenplatz and the lakefront, alongside shops selling army knives, chocolate and cuckoo clocks, though fashion and design are thin.

Siena is more modest still. There are Italian shoes and clothes on Banchi di Sopra, majolica ceramics, contrada scarves and food to take home. A large weekly market by the Fortezza Medicea adds some local colour.

Siena is much easier on the wallet. Rooms inside the walls get expensive around the Palio and in summer. But osteria lunches are good value, you can walk everywhere in the centre, and staying at an agriturismo outside town cuts costs further.

Lucerne is very expensive on every front: central hotels, even simple meals, and the mountain railways that are the reason to go. A Swiss travel pass and picnics by the lake help a little, but there is no way to do it cheaply.

For music, Lucerne is the clear choice. The Lucerne Festival brings leading orchestras and soloists to Jean Nouvel's lakefront hall, famous for its acoustics. The hall keeps a year-round programme with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, and the city theatre adds opera and dance.

Siena has a real musical life, just a smaller one. The Accademia Chigiana holds summer concerts in palaces and churches, Siena Jazz adds concerts by its teachers and students, and the Teatro dei Rinnovati and Teatro dei Rozzi run winter seasons. For opera or a major orchestra you would go to Florence.

Siena has thermal springs nearby. Rapolano Terme is about half an hour away. Further south are Bagno Vignoni's steaming medieval pool, the free limestone pools of Bagni San Filippo and Petriolo's hot river, so soaking in warm water becomes a natural part of a stay.

Lucerne has no bathing tradition of its own beyond hotel spas and Mario Botta's mineral bath high on the Rigi. Its calm comes from quiet evenings, lakeside promenades and slow afternoons on a steamer. Both centres are crowded with day visitors in the middle of the day.