Milan or Strasbourg?

Neither city has a beach, but Milan has the better summer escape. Lake Como and Lake Maggiore are about an hour away by train, with pebbly lidos and swimming platforms, and the Idroscalo basin offers a closer dip. Strasbourg has only its old gravel-pit lakes, such as the tram-served Baggersee, which are fine for a hot afternoon and not much more.

Both cities cook rich northern food, but Milan has more to choose from. Saffron risotto, ossobuco and cotoletta are only the start, because the city also does Neapolitan pizza, Sicilian pastry and a deep tier of fine dining, and aperitivo turns early evening into a meal of its own.

Strasbourg is narrower and very satisfying in its own way. Choucroute, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée come in wood-panelled winstubs with Riesling from vineyards a short drive away, and the markets are good for Munster and charcuterie. It has little range beyond Alsatian cooking, though, and the food is heavy for a summer trip.

Milan has the bigger single sights: the Duomo with its rooftop among the spires, Leonardo's Last Supper, the Brera paintings and Michelangelo's Rondanini Pietà. They come in clusters within a modern business city, and the Last Supper needs booking well ahead.

Strasbourg is more of a piece. The cathedral, the Grande Ile, Petite France and the German-built Neustadt make up one continuous UNESCO-listed townscape, and the Palais Rohan puts three museums under one roof. It has fewer masterpieces, and two or three unhurried days cover it.

Milan is clearly the place for a night out. Aperitivo along the Navigli runs on into bars on the towpaths, Porta Venezia has the city's gay scene, and the clubs range from dressy Corso Como venues to warehouse nights on the edges of town, though August is thin.

Strasbourg's evenings revolve around student bars in the Krutenau and terraces on the quays. There are only a few clubs, and on weeknights much of the city has gone quiet by midnight.

The two are close here, and both sit on a flat plain with the real landscape an hour away. From Milan it is lakes and mountains: steep wooded shores at Como and Maggiore, sailing, and hard hiking and via ferrata on the Grigne ridges, all reachable by train.

Strasbourg's outdoors is gentler and easier to start from the door. You can cycle out along the Rhine among storks and beavers, walk the forest trails and castle ruins of the Vosges, or hike in the Black Forest, although a car helps for the hills.

Both make excellent bases, but Milan's high-speed rail links give it the edge. Verona, Turin and Bergamo's upper town are each about an hour away, Bologna is not much further, and the Certosa di Pavia, Mantua and the Borromean Islands fill further days.

Strasbourg's trips are more rural and cross a border. Colmar is half an hour south, the Alsace wine route villages lie among the vineyards, and Baden-Baden, Freiburg and Basel are across the Rhine. The wine villages are much easier with a car or a bike.

Strasbourg is the easier city with children. The centre is small and mostly car-free, and boat trips around the Grande Ile, the stork-nesting Orangerie park with rowing boats and the Le Vaisseau science centre are all made for families. Europa-Park is about an hour away.

Milan copes well but is built for adults. The science and technology museum, with its submarine, is a fine rainy-day outing, and Leolandia and Gardaland please older children, but summer humidity and adult-oriented sights make it harder going.

Both are easy without a car, in different ways. Milan relies on five simple metro lines and a dense tram network, including the old orange cars, with direct trains to the lakes, though the long Malpensa transfer and stuffy summer platforms are drawbacks. Strasbourg is small enough to cross on foot in twenty minutes, and its trams and separated bike lanes mean a bicycle is often the quickest way around.

For shopping, Milan is in another league. The Quadrilatero della Moda holds the flagships of houses founded in the city, the Galleria and La Rinascente are long-standing institutions, and furniture and lighting design is a second speciality.

Strasbourg is a pleasant regional shopping town, with chain stores around Place Kléber and delicatessens near the cathedral. The best things to take home are local: Soufflenheim pottery, Alsace wine and Christmas-market crafts.

Strasbourg is the cheaper of the two, priced like a large French regional city rather than a capital. A winstub dinner with a pichet of wine is fair value, the cathedral and old-town streets cost nothing to see, and hotels only climb sharply during the Christmas market and the weeks when Parliament sits.

Milan is Italy's most expensive city, and rooms at fair rates become very hard to find during fashion weeks and trade fairs. Aperitivo snacks in place of supper, office-worker lunch menus and staying out along a metro line all help.

Milan has La Scala, and that settles it for opera lovers. The season opens on the feast of Sant'Ambrogio, and gallery seats make it possible for those who persist, while the Piccolo Teatro and San Siro's summer concerts add drama and large-scale music.

Strasbourg is strong for its size, with the Opéra national du Rhin, the Théâtre National and the Musica festival of contemporary music in autumn. It works best for visitors who plan a trip around the season.

Strasbourg is the more restful choice. The tiled Bains municipaux are part of local life, Baden-Baden's thermal baths are under an hour away, and canal walks and long winstub lunches set an easy pace outside December.

Milan has a thermal spa complex and the 1930s Bagni Misteriosi pools, but the city itself is busy, and real calm means a train ride to the lakes.