Nuremberg or Padua?

Neither city is for a swimming trip. From Nuremberg, the nearest water is the Franconian Lake District about an hour south, a chain of reservoirs such as the Brombachsee with grassy banks and small strips of sand. It is only worth going in the warmest weeks of summer.

Padua does better because it can reach the sea. Sottomarina and the Lido of Venice are each about an hour away, with shallow, calm Adriatic water that suits small children. The beaches are flat rows of umbrellas rather than anything scenic, but a proper day at the seaside is easy to arrange.

Nuremberg eats heavily and well within a narrow range: finger-sized bratwurst grilled over beechwood, Schäufele with dumplings, Lebkuchen, and above all the Franconian beer poured in taverns and beer gardens. Beyond that, the restaurants are ordinary.

Padua has more variety and more pleasure in everyday eating, with bigoli in duck sauce, baccalà, risotto with spring peas and the morning markets of Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta. Drinking means wine and spritz rather than beer, with Euganean reds from just outside town. Neither is a fine-dining city.

Both have rich, walkable historic centres, but the focus differs. Nuremberg offers a medieval townscape of walls, the Kaiserburg, Gothic churches and Dürer's house, much of it carefully rebuilt after the war. Add the Germanisches Nationalmuseum and the confronting twentieth-century sites of the Rally Grounds and Courtroom 600.

Padua is about painting and learning. Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel needs a timed visit, and it sits among a UNESCO-listed group of fresco cycles, the Basilica of Saint Anthony, the world's oldest permanent anatomical theatre and the botanical garden founded in 1545. Its centre is quicker to cover, which leaves time for Venice.

Neither city is for clubbing, and evenings in both are sociable rather than wild. Nuremberg's are built around beer, in old-town taverns and, more interestingly, in the small bars and alternative venues of Gostenhof, with students from Erlangen filling the weekends.

In Padua the evening is the aperitivo, spritz in hand across Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signori, followed by wine bars in the old ghetto during term. It goes quiet in high summer and the university breaks.

The outdoors is evenly matched, and in both cities you travel a little way to reach it. Nuremberg has the Reichswald forest at its edge and, about an hour away, the limestone towers, caves and well-known rock climbing of Franconian Switzerland.

Padua is flat close in, with towpaths along the Brenta, but the volcanic Euganean Hills rise just 15km away. Around Monte Grappa and Asiago, the pre-Alps offer the real mountain walking that Nuremberg lacks.

Nuremberg is a strong base in its own right. Bamberg, Regensburg and Würzburg are each about an hour away by train, and the walled towns of the Romantic Road are a little further.

Padua is better still, mainly because Venice is under half an hour away and you can return to a calmer bed each night. Vicenza is a quarter of an hour by train, and Verona and Bologna are around an hour. The Brenta villas and the walled towns around the Euganean Hills are even closer, so a week of first-rate days out costs very little travel.

Nuremberg is far better set up for children. Its long toy-making history shows in the Toy Museum, the railway museum has full-size locomotives, and the zoo spreads through wooded old quarries. In Advent there is also a separate children's Christmas market with carousels.

Padua is friendly and flat, with Prato della Valle for running about and trattorias that welcome children, but its sights are mostly frescoes and churches. Families there tend to rely on Gardaland or the Adriatic for their fun days.

Both cities are easy on foot, and neither needs a car. Nuremberg's walled old town is about 1.5km across, with a steep cobbled climb to the castle. Beyond the walls, U-Bahn, tram and S-Bahn lines on one ticket reach the Rally Grounds, the zoo and Fürth.

Padua is flat, arcaded and largely closed to traffic, and a tram and bicycles cover most of the rest. Its great strength is the station, with quick main-line trains in every direction.

Shopping is a minor part of a trip to either city, so the difference lies in what you take home. In Nuremberg that means Lebkuchen in tins, wooden toys and crafts from the Handwerkerhof workshops. In Advent, the Christkindlesmarkt on the Hauptmarkt turns shopping into an event.

Padua's arcades hold Italian shoe and fashion shops and university bookshops, but the best buys are edible: cheeses, cured meats and Euganean wine from the markets. One Sunday a month, an antiques market fills Prato della Valle.

Costs are similar, moderate by Western European standards, with Padua slightly easier on the budget. In Nuremberg, beer, tavern meals and transport are cheap, but hotel rooms become scarce and dear during the big trade fairs and the Advent market.

Padua's appeal is as an affordable base for the region, with Venice nearby, and a standing spritz or market food costs little. Its hotels also get dearer for trade fairs and graduation season, so check the dates for either city.

Nuremberg has the fuller programme. The Staatstheater stages opera, ballet and drama in an Art Nouveau house, and two orchestras play through the season, with a large summer open-air concert in the Luitpoldhain. The Bardentreffen fills the squares with free folk and world music.

Padua's offering is smaller: drama and some opera at Teatro Verdi, and chamber concerts in frescoed halls and the basilica. For major opera, visitors go to the Fenice in Venice or the Arena in Verona.

Nuremberg relies on the German sauna habit. There is a large thermal spa in Fürth, leisure pools with mixed, nude saunas, and the saline pools of Bad Windsheim an hour west. Its most restful afternoons are spent in beer gardens or along the Pegnitz.

Padua has one of Europe's largest thermal districts on its doorstep. Abano Terme and Montegrotto Terme, about 12km away, have hot mineral water and a mud used for treatments since Roman times, and many spa hotels take day visitors.