Marseille or Milan?

This is where the two cities differ most. Marseille lives beside the sea, with the broad Prado beaches for families, Plage des Catalans and the Corniche inlets for a swim before work, and the clear water of the Calanques for a half-day outing. The mistral and the odd closure after heavy rain are the only catches.

Milan has no coast. In summer the locals use the Idroscalo basin and open-air pools, and the real swimming is in Lake Como or Lake Maggiore, about an hour away by train. For Milan a swim is a planned outing. In Marseille it can be part of most summer days.

Milan eats better overall. The rich, butter-based northern cooking of saffron risotto, ossobuco and cotoletta comes with good cooking from every other Italian region, a serious fine-dining scene and the evening ritual of aperitivo in Brera, Isola and along the Navigli. The weak spot is the ordinary cheap food near the Duomo.

Marseille's strengths are the sea and the street. Bouillabaisse eaten slowly in a Corniche harbour, panisses, the North African bakeries and spice shops of Noailles and the morning fish sellers on the quay make it more of a market city than Milan. Avoid the tired set menus around the Vieux-Port.

What sets Milan apart is the quality of its sights: a few world-famous works, close together. Marseille's heritage is older, going back to its Greek founding, but it is scattered through a working port. You find it in Notre-Dame de la Garde on its hill, the forts and the MuCEM at the Vieux-Port, the Vieille Charité in Le Panier, the Château d'If and Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse, mostly while exploring the city rather than on a planned round of sights.

In Milan the masterpieces are the reason to go. The rooftop among the Duomo's spires, the Last Supper, the Brera paintings and Michelangelo's Rondanini Pietà in the Castello Sforzesco could fill several days on their own. The Ambrosiana's Leonardo drawings and the basilica of Sant'Ambrogio add depth around them.

Milan has the more polished and varied night out. It starts with aperitivo, moves on to the canal-side bars of the Navigli or the gay scene around Porta Venezia, and can end at a dressy club on Corso Como where the door matters, or at a warehouse night out of town.

Marseille is louder and more casual, centred on the graffiti-covered bars and pavement tables of Cours Julien and La Plaine, with pastis on the Vieux-Port terraces. Its clubs are fewer and more scattered, the scene fades in winter, and some streets feel edgy late at night. Milan's quiet patch is August.

Marseille has the landscape right on its doorstep. The Calanques national park starts at the edge of the city, with ridge paths to Sormiou, Sugiton and En-Vau, famous sport climbing, and kayaking and diving around the Riou islands. Sainte-Victoire and the Sainte-Baume forest are within an hour. Fire closures in high summer are the main limit.

Around Milan the land is flat, often hazy plain, and you need a train to reach the good outdoors: the wooded shores of Como and Maggiore, the Grigne ridges for via ferrata, and ski resorts that take a full day. It is good walking country, but it starts an hour away.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference is in the kind of trip. From Milan, high-speed trains make whole cities easy without a car: Verona, Turin and Bologna, plus Bergamo, Mantua, the lake villages and even Lugano across the Swiss border.

From Marseille, the trips are Provence: Aix half an hour away, Arles and Avignon by train, and Cassis just down the coast. The Luberon hill villages, Les Baux and the Bandol vineyards are much easier with a car, so Marseille offers more countryside and Milan easier car-free travel.

Neither city is built around children, and each works for families in a different way. Marseille is a summer choice: the gentle water and lawns of the Prado, Parc Borély's lake and boat trips to the Château d'If. But there is no zoo or aquarium, and steep streets and narrow pavements are hard work with a buggy.

Milan's flat centre and trams make getting around with a pushchair easier. The science and technology museum, with its submarine, is a good wet-day option, and Leolandia and Gardaland are within reach for older children. Milan lacks a beach, and its humid summers can be heavy going.

Marseille takes more effort. The centre, from the Vieux-Port through Le Panier to Cours Julien, is walkable but steep in places, and the metro and trams serve it well. They do not reach the beaches or the Calanques trailheads, though, and the buses that do get stuck in traffic. The summer ferries to Pointe Rouge and L'Estaque are the pleasant way round, and a car helps for the Provence villages, even if driving in the centre is stressful.

Milan is much simpler. Its flat, compact centre puts the Duomo, Brera and the Castello a short walk apart, five clear metro lines and the old orange trams cover the rest, and direct trains run to the lakes, so you never need a car. The only real nuisances are the long transfer from Malpensa and the summer heat underground.

Milan is in another class here. The great Italian fashion houses have flagships in the Quadrilatero della Moda, La Rinascente stands beside the Duomo, there are vintage shops in Brera and Porta Ticinese, and design showrooms across the city, so serious shoppers could easily give a whole trip to it.

Marseille is better for local crafts. Buy green cubes of olive-oil soap and santon figures from Le Panier workshops, and browse fabrics and teas in the narrow streets of Noailles. Beyond Rue Paradis and a few independent boutiques, a fashion hunter soon runs out of places to go.

Marseille costs noticeably less, though it is not a budget city. Hotels are reasonable outside July and August, pizza, North African snacks and market food make cheap meals, walking in the Calanques is free and many museums charge little to get in.

Milan is Italy's most expensive city. Room rates jump during the trade fairs and fashion weeks, and dinners in Brera and drinks in smart bars are priced to match. Aperitivo snacks as a light supper, office-worker set lunches and a hotel near a metro stop outside the centre all help to keep costs down.

Milan is the clear choice for a night of opera or theatre. La Scala's season of opera, ballet and concerts, the Piccolo Teatro, a fine symphony orchestra and big stadium concerts at San Siro give it a calendar with real highlights, and gallery seats make La Scala possible without a big budget.

Marseille's stages are solid and more popular in style: the art deco Opéra, drama at La Criée, mixed programmes at the Friche la Belle de Mai, and a strong hip-hop and world-music scene. Summer gives Marseille the Festival de Marseille just as Milan's opera and concert season goes quiet.

Neither is a place to unwind, and in both the real rest is outside the city. Milan does have more to offer within its limits: a thermal spa complex with outdoor pools and saunas, and the restored 1930s pools of the Bagni Misteriosi in summer, with lakeside villas an hour away.

Marseille has a few neighbourhood hammams used mostly by locals and some hotel spas. Its calm comes from a long lunch by a Corniche harbour, and many visitors who want quiet stay in Cassis or a country house and come into the city for the day.