Milan or Palermo?

On swimming, the two cities could hardly be further apart. Milan is landlocked, so summer swims mean the Idroscalo basin near Linate, an open-air city pool, or an hour's train to the pebbly lidos and swimming platforms of Lake Como and Lake Maggiore.

Palermo has real sea on its doorstep. Mondello's pale sand and clear, shallow water are half an hour away by bus. The rocks towards Sferracavallo and Capo Gallo give quieter, deeper swimming, and Cefalù's town beach is an hour by train. The one catch is that you can't swim right outside the hotel.

Both are very good places to eat, but in opposite ways. Milan cooks with butter: saffron risotto, ossobuco and cotoletta, with aperitivo spreads along the Navigli and in Isola. Because people come from all over Italy, it is also the stronger city for fine dining and for other regional cuisines.

Palermo eats standing up in Ballarò, the Capo and the Vucciria: panelle, arancine and sfincione from vans. The Arab past shows in dishes like pasta con le sarde, and cannoli are filled while you wait. There is little fine dining or foreign food, but the street eating has no equal in Milan.

The two are level on heritage but offer different trips. Milan's sights are a handful of masterpieces in a mostly modern city: the Duomo's rooftop spires, the Last Supper (book well ahead), the Brera paintings and the Rondanini Pietà at the Castello.

Palermo's strength is a whole style from the twelfth century, when Byzantine gold mosaic and Islamic carved ceilings were combined in the Palatine Chapel, La Martorana and the cathedral. On top come Serpotta's stucco oratories and the Salinas museum. Its sights lie across a worn, atmospheric old centre rather than in separate clusters.

Milan has more to offer after dark. Aperitivo along the Navigli leads on to dressy clubs around Corso Como, where your clothes matter at the door, or to warehouse nights on the city's edge. Porta Venezia is the centre of the gay scene.

Palermo's nights are looser and take place outdoors: cheap beer and grills in the Vucciria, and wine bars in the Kalsa after a late dinner. There are few clubs. The seasons also run in opposite directions: Milan empties in August, just as Palermo's dancing moves to the beach venues around Mondello.

Palermo has wild landscape right at the city's edge. The old path up Monte Pellegrino starts in town, and Capo Gallo has cliff walks and snorkelling. Further out are the Zingaro coast trail and the beech woods of the Madonie, though these really need a car.

Milan sits on a flat, hazy plain with only Parco Sempione and the canal towpaths nearby. Within an hour by train, though, are the wooded shores of Como and Maggiore and the Grigne ridges, with sailing, hiking and via ferrata.

Milan is the better base because of its fast trains. Bergamo, the Como villages, Verona's arena and Turin's Egyptian Museum are each about an hour away. Bologna, Mantua, Parma, the Certosa di Pavia and Swiss Lugano are all easy to reach without a car.

Palermo's day trips are just as impressive but harder to reach. Monreale's mosaics are half an hour up the hill and Cefalù is an easy train ride. Segesta, Erice and the Valley of the Temples at Agrigento, two hours away, are much easier with a hire car.

Milan is the easier city with children, mostly because of practical things. The science museum's submarine and trains cover rainy days, Parco Sempione has playgrounds, the flat centre suits pushchairs, and Leolandia and Gardaland are within reach for older children.

Palermo welcomes children warmly, in restaurants late into the evening and with granita everywhere. Mondello's shallow bay and the puppet shows are real highlights. Away from those, there is little built for children, the stone lanes often have no pavements, and summer heat makes a seaside base outside the old town more sensible.

Milan is much easier to get around. Five simple metro lines take contactless cards, trams fill the gaps, and direct trains reach the lakes. The main nuisances are the long transfer from Malpensa and the summer heat underground.

In Palermo you can walk the whole historic spine along Via Maqueda and Corso Vittorio Emanuele, but the side lanes mean dodging scooters. Buses crawl through traffic, driving is stressful and parking is scarce, yet a car is still the practical way to reach Segesta and the interior.

For shopping, Milan is in a different league. Many of the great Italian fashion houses were founded here, and their flagships fill Via Montenapoleone and Via della Spiga. The Galleria and La Rinascente add history, and furniture and lighting showrooms make design a second reason to come.

Palermo has Italian fashion on Via Libertà, but its best buys are local: painted ceramics and moor's-head vases, marionettes from the puppet workshops, coral jewellery, and pistachio pesto and capers from the markets.

Palermo is far cheaper. Milan is Italy's most expensive city, and hotel rooms are very hard to find at a sensible rate during trade fairs and fashion weeks. Aperitivo snacks as a light supper and office-worker lunch menus help a little.

In Palermo, a string of market stops makes dinner, and trattorie, local wine and old-centre guesthouses cost much less than in the north. Prices rise in July and August around Mondello, and car hire and fish restaurants bring costs up nearer mainland levels.

Milan has the stronger stage, centred on La Scala's opera and ballet season, which opens each December. The Piccolo Teatro and a fine symphony orchestra add to it. Big nights at La Scala take determination to book, though gallery seats help.

Palermo's Teatro Massimo is just as grand a building, and it is far easier to get a ticket. The city's distinctive tradition is the Opera dei Pupi: armoured marionettes fighting Charlemagne's battles in small family theatres, which Milan has nothing to match. In summer, Palermo's programme moves outdoors into cloisters and squares.

Neither city is a place to unwind, but Milan has a little more on offer. Its thermal spa complex in the southern centre has outdoor pools and saunas, the 1930s Bagni Misteriosi make a good summer afternoon, and lakeside villas are an hour away by train.

Palermo has no bathing culture of its own beyond hotel spas, and the nearest thermal waters are at Termini Imerese, forty minutes away by train. Its quieter side lies in daily habits: the evening walk along the Foro Italico and shady hours among the palms of the Orto Botanico.