Madrid or Rome?

Here Rome has a real advantage. Madrid sits far inland on its plateau, so swimming means a municipal open-air pool or a reservoir below the Guadarrama, and the sea needs its own leg of the trip.

From Rome, a suburban train reaches Ostia in about half an hour. The beach there is dark volcanic sand, mostly paid lidos, with freer stretches towards Castel Porziano and a more relaxed feel at Fregene. The water is warm in high summer but rarely clear, and it is crowded at weekends. For clean coves, Sperlonga and Sabaudia are a full day out.

Both cities eat very well, in different styles. Madrid is about grazing on your feet: small plates and cañas along Cava Baja and around Santa Ana, cocido and callos, churros in the small hours. As the capital, it also gathers Galician seafood and Basque grills from the rest of Spain.

Rome is about sitting down to a plate in a plain trattoria. Carbonara, cacio e pepe and the other classic pastas come first, followed by artichokes in the Ghetto, offal in Testaccio and pizza al taglio as you walk. In Rome, the main thing is to eat away from the tourist menus around the big sights. In Madrid, the thing to get used to is dinner after 9pm.

Madrid has one of the world's great clusters of painting along the Paseo del Prado: Velázquez, Goya, Guernica and the Thyssen's long span of art. Around it, the city is mostly Habsburg and Bourbon grandeur, with little older fabric.

Rome is on another scale. You can walk from the Colosseum and the Palatine to the Pantheon, through early Christian mosaics and Bernini's fountains, and on to the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. History is in the street fabric itself, not only in the galleries. A week in Rome still leaves a lot unseen.

This is one of Madrid's clearest wins. The night starts after a midnight dinner and the clubs around Gran Vía and Sol run past dawn. Each district has its own scene: indie bars in Malasaña, the gay heart of Chueca, terraces in La Latina and Lavapiés.

Rome's evenings are gentler and mostly outdoors. They start with aperitivo, then move to wine bars in Trastevere and Monti or cheaper drinks in San Lorenzo. Clubbing is limited to Testaccio and Ostiense. It suits people who want a late stroll with a glass, not a night of dancing.

The outdoors is about even, but it looks different in each. Madrid's real escape is the Sierra de Guadarrama, about an hour north, with granite peaks, the boulders of La Pedriza and glacial lakes below Peñalara. In town, the Retiro, Casa de Campo and Madrid Río are good for running and cycling.

Rome's green is more varied but more spread out. There is the Appian Way, where you can cycle past tombs and aqueducts, the old villa parks, the crater lakes of Albano and Nemi, and Apennine trails about ninety minutes off. In both cities, high summer pushes outdoor plans into spring and autumn.

Both cities are excellent bases, and the difference lies in what you go out to see. Madrid's fast trains reach a ring of historic Castilian cities: Toledo above its gorge, Segovia's aqueduct and Alcázar, walled Ávila, Salamanca and Cuenca, with El Escorial and Aranjuez closer in.

Rome's trips lean more towards antiquity. There is the excavated port of Ostia Antica, Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este at Tivoli, and the Etruscan tombs of Tarquinia and Cerveteri, as well as Orvieto and Assisi. High-speed trains also make Florence or Naples possible in a day.

Madrid is the easier city with children. The centre is flat for pushchairs and many metro stations have lifts. The Retiro has puppet shows and rowing boats, and Casa de Campo has a zoo, a cable car and a funfair, with theme parks further out. Children out late in plazas are normal there.

Rome welcomes children in every trattoria, but the city works against them. There are long queues at the Vatican and Colosseum, cobbles and busy roads. Gladiator stories, the catacombs and the Bioparco in Villa Borghese help, and an unhurried spring visit works best. July and August heat is hard on families in both cities.

Madrid is much easier to get around. Its metro is large, air-conditioned and runs straight to the airport, and the walk from the Royal Palace to the Prado is flat and compact.

Rome's centre is a pleasure on foot, from the Colosseum to Piazza Navona and over the river to Trastevere. But the metro has only a few lines and barely enters the historic core, and buses and trams get stuck in traffic. Cobbles and scooters make every day more tiring.

Shopping is roughly level, with a different emphasis in each. Madrid is the broader all-round city. It has luxury houses in the Salamanca district, big department stores and flagships around Sol and Gran Vía, and independent labels in Malasaña and Chueca.

Rome has a sharper focus on Italian fashion along Via Condotti and the streets off the Spanish Steps, and on handmade shoes and leather. Department stores are weak there. Each city has a Sunday flea market, El Rastro in Madrid and the sprawling Porta Portese in Rome.

Madrid is noticeably kinder on the wallet. Its hotels are priced like any major capital, but the midday menu, tapas with a drink and the free museum hours keep daily spending down.

Rome costs more, mainly because rooms in the historic centre are small, dear and scarce in spring and autumn, and the Vatican, Colosseum and Borghese all charge substantial entry. Standing espresso, free water from the fountains and churches full of art soften the bill.

Madrid offers more for an evening out. It has opera at the Teatro Real, Spain's own zarzuela, a row of musicals along Gran Vía, and flamenco every night in the old centre, where the best tablaos put on serious performers.

Rome's strength is music rather than theatre, since plays are largely in Italian. The highlights are summer opera among the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, the Santa Cecilia orchestra at Renzo Piano's Auditorium and frequent concerts in churches.

Neither city is built for slowing down, and both are loud and hot in summer. What differs is where the water is. Madrid's Arab-style bathhouses are right in the old centre, under brick vaults.

Rome has real thermal springs outside the city, at the Acque Albule pools of Bagni di Tivoli and the hot springs around Viterbo. For calm in town, use Madrid's Retiro and Botanical Garden, or Rome's villa gardens and the Aventine.