Munich or Turin?

Neither city has a coast, but Munich makes far more of summer water. Locals sunbathe on the Isar's gravel banks at the Flaucher, and the S-Bahn reaches the Starnberger See and Ammersee in under an hour. Lawns, jetties and clear alpine water make an easy half-day off from sightseeing.

From Turin, the Ligurian Riviera is close to two hours away. That is a full day's commitment, and the small lakes at Avigliana or Viverone are a local's escape rather than a draw. If swimming matters to your trip, Munich at least makes it part of a city stay.

Turin is the clear winner here. Piedmont's cooking is refined and varied: agnolotti del plin, tajarin, bollito misto, bagna cauda, and white truffles from the Langhe in autumn, with Barolo and Barbaresco on every wine list. The city also invented vermouth and the aperitivo, and serves bicerin and gianduiotti in historic arcade cafés.

Munich eats heartily rather than finely. Roast pork, white sausage and pretzels under the chestnut trees of a beer garden are a real pleasure, and the Viktualienmarkt is a fine place to graze. Beyond Bavarian dishes and some good Italian and Turkish cooking, though, the range is narrower than in Turin.

The two are evenly matched, but their strengths lie in different areas. Munich is a city of painting and palaces: the Alte Pinakothek's old masters and the rest of the Kunstareal, the Wittelsbach Residenz, Nymphenburg and the vast Deutsches Museum, all around an old town largely rebuilt after the war.

Turin's draw is the Museo Egizio, one of the great Egyptian collections, set in a baroque capital ringed by Savoy residences such as the Reggia di Venaria. Its newer chapters stand out too: the cinema museum inside the Mole, Fiat's Lingotto with its rooftop test track, and contemporary art at Rivoli.

Munich has a slight edge, mostly because it offers a little more choice. Its evenings often stay in a beer hall or beer garden, but the Glockenbachviertel has cocktail and gay bars, and a few serious techno clubs run until morning. For just over two weeks from late September, the Oktoberfest takes over the city.

Turin's nights start with the aperitivo and move on to the wine bars of the Quadrilatero Romano, the crowded pavements of San Salvario and, in summer, the Murazzi on the Po. It is sociable rather than wild, and it quietens noticeably when the students are away.

Both cities sit on flat plains with the Alps on the skyline, and both are about an hour from real mountains. The difference is in character. From Munich, trains reach Garmisch, the Zugspitze, Tegernsee and the Five Lakes, so hiking, cycling and sailing are easy without a car, and the English Garden, with surfers on the Eisbach, is a large green space in the city itself.

Turin's mountains feel higher and wilder. Gran Paradiso has ibex and chamois, the Via Lattea slopes are close, and Monviso rises to the south-west. Closer to town, the hill paths up to Superga and the walled Mandria forest are good for walks, but the wilder country usually needs a car.

Both make excellent bases, and the choice comes down to what you want from a day out. From Munich, fast trains go to historic towns: Augsburg, Nuremberg, Regensburg, and across the border to Salzburg and Innsbruck. The fairy-tale castles of Neuschwanstein and Herrenchiemsee are the famous excursions.

Turin's days out are about wine country and landscape. They include the Langhe villages of Barolo and La Morra, truffle town Alba, Bra and the Monferrato, as well as the Sacra di San Michele high on its rock. Milan is an hour by train and Genoa about two, but for the vineyards a car makes the day much easier.

Munich is the more child-friendly city by some way. It has a big zoo on the Isar meadows, hands-on halls at the Deutsches Museum, a transport museum, an aquarium in the Olympic Park, and beer gardens where children play while parents sit. The lake beaches make simple summer days out.

Turin does better than most Italian cities. Its arcades shelter pushchairs, crowds are light, and the glass lift up the Mole and the Egyptian mummies go down well with older children. There is no zoo or aquarium in the city, though, and its hot summers are harder on small children than Munich's.

Both old centres are compact and flat, but Munich's network reaches much further. One integrated U-Bahn, S-Bahn and tram system covers the museums, Nymphenburg, the airport and the lakes, and regional trains handle nearly every day trip. Delays on the central S-Bahn line are the main drawback.

In Turin you mostly walk the grid of arcades from Porta Nuova to the Mole and the river. Beyond that, a single metro line helps, but the trams and buses are slower and harder to work out.

Munich is the better city for clothes and luxury. Maximilianstrasse and the Theatinerstrasse arcades hold the big fashion houses, and the speciality is Tracht, dirndls and lederhosen from specialist tailors. Dallmayr's historic food hall and the December Christmas markets add to the appeal.

Turin's best buys are things to eat. Chocolate makers, pastry shops and delicatessens sell gianduiotti, truffles and Piedmontese wine. It is also the better of the two for rummaging, with antique dealers on Via Maria Vittoria and the Balon flea market, something Munich largely lacks. Designer fashion, though, is limited.

The biggest gap is in where you sleep and where you sit down to dinner. A Munich hotel room costs well above its Turin equivalent in any month, and a restaurant meal costs what it would in a Western European capital. In Turin, a central room and a full Piedmontese dinner leave far more of the budget for everything else. In both cities hotel rates rise when a big trade fair is on, and in Munich the Oktoberfest makes rooms scarce and costly as well.

Elsewhere the two are closer than the hotel bills suggest. A plate of roast pork in a beer hall, or a picnic carried into a beer garden, keeps Munich's daily spend down much as Turin's bakeries and market stalls do. Transport is fair value in both cities, and the English Garden and the Isar banks are as free as Valentino park and the arcades. Turin's bill climbs mostly with autumn truffles and the main museum tickets, where Munich's token Sunday entry gives it the edge.

Munich is the place for a night at the opera. The Bavarian State Opera in the National Theatre is among the world's leading companies, three orchestras of real standing play in halls such as the Herkulessaal, and the rococo Cuvilliés Theatre stages intimate chamber opera. Jazz clubs and big Olympic Park concerts add variety.

Turin has a full season at the Teatro Regio, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Renzo Piano's Lingotto auditorium and long-running jazz and electronic festivals. It is a strong programme for a city of its size, but few visitors travel abroad for it. In both cities, spoken theatre is almost entirely in the local language.

Munich has a real bathing culture, and Turin does not. The Art Nouveau Müller'sches Volksbad has vaulted pools and a Roman-style steam bath, public saunas follow the German textile-free custom, and the huge thermal complex at Erding is about forty minutes away. The spa towns of Bad Tölz and Bad Reichenhall lie towards the mountains.

In Turin, spas are mostly hotel affairs, and the nearest thermal waters, at Acqui Terme or in the Aosta valley, are close to two hours away. What it offers instead is a slow pace: long café breaks, evening strolls under the arcades and quiet hours in Valentino park.