Munich or Verona?

Neither city has a coast, so swimming means lakes in both. Munich's options are the Isar gravel banks around the Flaucher and the Starnberger See or Ammersee by S-Bahn, where the alpine-fed water stays bracing even in high summer.

Verona does this better. Garda's southern shore is close, the water is noticeably warmer by July, and the lidos, lawns and Sirmione's flat rock shelves make an easy afternoon. In both cities it is still a side trip, with busy weekends on Garda.

The two are broadly level, but the meals are very different. Munich eats around beer: brewery halls and chestnut-shaded gardens, pork with crackling, white sausage before noon, plus the Viktualienmarkt for picking at cheese and fruit, and a serious tradition of afternoon cake.

Verona eats around wine. Amarone risotto, bigoli with duck and bollito with pearà come in plain osterie, and Valpolicella, Soave and Bardolino are poured at counters with snacks. Neither city offers much choice beyond its own regional cooking, and Verona's tourist food around the Arena is best skipped.

Munich keeps most of its culture behind museum and palace doors. In the Kunstareal you can walk in minutes from the old masters of the Alte Pinakothek to the Greek and Roman marble of the Glyptothek and the Blue Rider canvases at the Lenbachhaus. The Residenz state rooms, Nymphenburg and the Deutsches Museum add plenty more. The streets matter less, since much of the centre had to be rebuilt after the war.

Verona is the other way round, and its streets are what you come to see. Inside the bend of the Adige you can walk from the Roman Arena and theatre to the della Scala tombs and the Romanesque doors of San Zeno, with Castelvecchio's paintings hung in Scarpa's rooms along the way. There is less of it, and a long weekend covers it well. Munich's galleries repay a longer stay.

Munich has more to offer after dark. Beer halls give way to the cocktail and gay bars of Glockenbach and Gärtnerplatz, student pubs in Schwabing, and a few techno clubs that keep going until morning at weekends. Oktoberfest takes over the city for just over two weeks each autumn.

Verona's evenings are about the aperitivo in Piazza delle Erbe and along the river, with livelier, cheaper bars across the Ponte Pietra in Veronetta. There is no real dance scene in the centre, and the streets empty early unless an Arena opera has just let out.

Munich is clearly the stronger base for the outdoors. Trains reach Garmisch, the Zugspitze and Tegernsee for proper alpine hiking and winter skiing, and the city itself has the English Garden, the Eisbach surfers and long cycle paths along the Isar.

Verona's countryside is gentler: vineyard walks in Valpolicella, the Adige cycle route, and Monte Baldo's ridges and Garda's wind for sailing about an hour away. The high mountains, the Dolomites, are too far for a comfortable day trip.

Both are excellent bases, and Verona has the edge on variety and closeness. Venice is about an hour by train, Vicenza's Palladio and Padua's Giotto chapel are nearer still, and Mantua, the Garda harbours and the Soave and Valpolicella cellars are all near.

Munich offers a different mix: Augsburg, Nuremberg and Regensburg by train, Salzburg and Innsbruck over the border, and Neuschwanstein, the classic fairy-tale castle, about two hours away. These trips are longer on average, but regional trains handle almost all of them.

Munich is easier with children. The Hellabrunn zoo, the hands-on sections of the Deutsches Museum, beer gardens with their own playgrounds and pushchair-friendly transport mean most family days need no car at all.

Verona's big draws, Gardaland and the Parco Natura Viva safari zoo, lie outside town and usually need a car or a transfer. In the centre, the Arena catches children's imagination and the streets are flat for a pushchair, but summer afternoons there are hot work for small legs.

Munich is the easier city to get around. Its old town is compact and mostly pedestrianised. Beyond it, a single network of U-Bahn, S-Bahn, trams and buses takes you to the museums, Nymphenburg, the Olympic Park, the airport and out to the lakes, and flat riverside paths suit a bike. The one weak spot is the S-Bahn line through the centre, which often runs late.

Verona works on foot, and inside the river loop that is all you need, because the centre is small, flat and largely closed to cars. There is no metro or tram, though. The station is about twenty minutes' walk from Piazza Bra, and the Valpolicella villages and the Lessinia are hard to reach without a car.

Munich is the better shopping city. It offers luxury houses on Maximilianstrasse, department stores along Kaufingerstrasse, independent design in Glockenbach and Schwabing, and Tracht tailors for a proper dirndl or lederhosen.

Verona's Via Mazzini is smart but provincial, and serious shoppers head to Milan. The best things to take home from Verona are edible: Amarone, Garda olive oil and a pandoro at Christmas.

Neither is cheap, but Verona costs less. Its expense is central hotels, which become scarce on summer opera nights and during trade fairs, while wine counters, Veronetta osterie and a walkable centre keep daily costs down.

Munich is dearer across the board, with high room rates all year and much higher ones during Oktoberfest. Picnics in the beer gardens, free parks and lakes, and token Sunday museum entry soften it.

Munich has the deeper programme all year. The Bavarian State Opera plays the National Theatre for most of the year, three orchestras of real standing perform in halls such as the Herkulessaal, and there is chamber opera in the rococo Cuvilliés Theatre, operetta at the Gärtnerplatztheater and a respected jazz scene.

Verona has the more famous single event: summer opera on the Arena's Roman stone tiers, with candles at dusk and huge Verdi sets. Outside the summer, the Teatro Filarmonico runs a modest season.

Munich has the stronger bathing culture within its own limits. The Art Nouveau Müller'sches Volksbad sits on the Isar, there are German-style textile-free saunas with infusion rituals, and the huge Erding thermal complex lies about forty minutes out.

Verona's warm water lies outside the city, at Sirmione's lakeside spa, the spring-fed thermal park near Lazise and Caldiero's Roman-era springs. In town, relaxing means a long lunch, the evening passeggiata and the terraces of the Giardino Giusti.