Lugano or Siena?

Neither city is on the sea, but Lugano at least has a lake you can swim in. From June to early September the lidos have decks, lawns and ladders into the water, with the main one at the mouth of the Cassarate, and boats run to village lake baths.

Siena has nothing like it. Swimming there means a hotel or agriturismo pool, and the Maremma beaches are well over an hour away by car, so a day at the coast takes the whole day.

Siena is the better place to eat. Look for hand-rolled pici with duck ragù, cinta senese pork, a baking tradition of panforte and ricciarelli, and Chianti Classico, Brunello and Vino Nobile by the glass. The best meals are in family osterie on the contrada side streets.

Lugano's great strength is the grotto, where polenta, braised meats and Ticino Merlot are served at granite tables under chestnut trees. Beyond that the range is narrow and the prices are Swiss, and many visitors save their serious meals for trips into Italy.

The gap is wide here. Siena's whole centre is a UNESCO-listed medieval city. It has the Campo, the Palazzo Pubblico with Lorenzetti's Good and Bad Government, the Duomo with its inlaid floor and Piccolomini Library, Duccio's Maestà, Santa Maria della Scala and the Pinacoteca.

Lugano's arcaded old town around Piazza della Riforma is pleasant rather than remarkable. Luini's Passion fresco, San Lorenzo and the art museum, split between LAC and Palazzo Reali, fill a day. The Hermann Hesse museum in Montagnola is the best thing to add.

In both towns the evening is built around dinner, and both are quiet before midnight. The difference is the crowd. Lugano does a well-dressed aperitivo on the lakefront and a few lounge bars by the water, at high prices.

Siena's university brings students to a handful of pubs and wine bars, and the nights around the Palio fill the streets with contrada dinners until late. For a real night out, Lugano's young people go to Milan and Siena's go to Florence.

Lugano is the stronger choice for time outdoors. Funiculars climb Monte Brè and San Salvatore and a rack railway climbs Monte Generoso. You can walk the lakeside path to Gandria or the ridge from Monte Lema to Monte Tamaro, and the green rivers of the Verzasca and Maggia valleys are about an hour away. There are also kayaks and paddleboards on the lake.

Siena's countryside is gentler and more pastoral: the bare clay hills of the Crete Senesi and the rolling fields of the Val d'Orcia. It is best seen by bike on the white gravel strade bianche, or on foot along the Via Francigena, but it has no mountains or lake to match Lugano's.

Both make excellent bases, but Siena has more within reach. Around it are San Gimignano, Monteriggioni, the Chianti villages, Volterra, Pienza, Montalcino and Montepulciano, the abbeys of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Sant'Antimo and San Galgano, and Florence. The catch is that most of these are much easier with a car.

Lugano's trips cross a border: Milan and The Last Supper, Como, Bellinzona's castles, Lake Maggiore and the Borromean Islands, and Morcote by boat. There are fewer places, but almost all of them are easy to reach by train or boat.

Lugano works better with children, and the lake is the reason. There are boat rides, lido slides, funiculars, the Monte Generoso rack railway, playgrounds in Parco Ciani and the miniature park of Swiss landmarks at Melide.

Siena has little made for children. Older children often enjoy climbing the Torre del Mangia and watching the contrada drummers. Both towns are steep work with a pushchair, and in Siena many families stay at a farmhouse with a pool and come into town for half days.

Both centres are small enough to walk, and both are steep. In Lugano a short funicular links the station high above town to the old streets, and in Siena a chain of escalators climbs from the station in the valley to the ridges inside the walls.

Lugano is much easier once you leave the centre. Swiss trains run to Bellinzona, Locarno, Como and Milan, lake boats reach the waterside villages, and funiculars and rack railways go up the mountains, so you can do without a car. Siena's regional trains are slow and infrequent, and buses are the better link to Florence. For the hill towns and wine country, you will want a hired car.

Lugano has more for shoppers with money to spend. Via Nassa's arcades are lined with Swiss watchmakers, jewellers and Italian fashion houses, and there is a large designer outlet towards Mendrisio.

Siena is smaller and more local. Expect clothing and leather on Banchi di Sopra, hand-painted majolica and contrada scarves, and panforte and pecorino to take home. Serious shoppers in Lugano make the trip to Milan.

Siena is much the cheaper stay. Rooms inside the walls are scarce, especially around the Palio and in summer, but an osteria lunch with house wine is good value and the centre costs nothing to walk. The ticketed cathedral and civic museums do add up.

In Lugano almost everything, from lakeside hotels to boat trips and mountain railways, comes at Swiss prices. Grotti, set lunches and the regional transport included with hotel stays help only a little.

Lugano has a slightly stronger programme. LAC's concert hall is home to the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana and its theatre stages drama and dance, while Estival Jazz fills Piazza della Riforma with free concerts in summer.

Siena's programme is provincial but has a character of its own. The Accademia Chigiana holds summer concerts in palaces and churches, Siena Jazz adds concerts by its teachers and students, and the Rinnovati and Rozzi theatres run winter seasons. For opera, Lugano looks to La Scala and Siena to Florence.

Siena has the hot springs that Lugano lacks. Nearby are the travertine pools of Rapolano Terme, the steaming medieval bath at Bagno Vignoni, the free limestone pools of Bagni San Filippo and Petriolo's sulphur river, and many visitors pair them with a rural spa stay.

Lugano's calm comes from the slow pace of a lake town: afternoons at the lido, benches in Parco Ciani and long grotto lunches. Its spas are mostly in the big hotels, plus an indoor pool and sauna complex near Rivera.