Nuremberg or Venice?

Nuremberg has no swimming of its own beyond outdoor pools. The nearest open water is the Franconian Lake District, about an hour south, where reservoirs such as the Brombachsee have grassy shores and small strips of sand for a hot summer afternoon.

Venice has a real sea beach a short boat ride away. The Lido has kilometres of fine sand along the Adriatic, with shallow, warm water that suits children, though it is greenish rather than clear and largely laid out in rows of cabanas. Quieter Pellestrina and the larger resorts at Jesolo are also within reach.

Nuremberg eats heavily and drinks well: finger-sized bratwurst grilled over beechwood, Schäufele with crackling and dumplings, Lebkuchen, and above all Franconia's small-brewery lagers and smoky Kellerbier in taverns and beer gardens. Beyond that tradition, its restaurants are unremarkable.

Venice offers more to the curious eater, provided they avoid the picture-menu places around San Marco. Cicchetti eaten standing at bacari near the Rialto and in Cannaregio, together with lagoon dishes such as black cuttlefish risotto and soft-shell crab, give it a lighter, seafood-led kitchen that Nuremberg has nothing to compare with.

Nuremberg has plenty to see. There are the medieval walls, the Kaiserburg, St Sebaldus and St Lorenz, Dürer's house and the vast Germanisches Nationalmuseum, along with the sobering twentieth-century history of the Rally Grounds and Courtroom 600. Much of the old town, though, is a careful post-war rebuild.

Venice is in another league. Six centuries of palaces and churches stand intact on the water, with no cars to break the view. Its art runs from Titian in the Frari and Tintoretto at San Rocco to the Guggenheim and the Biennale, and a week barely covers it.

Nuremberg gives you the better night out, though neither city is a party destination. Students fill the old town squares and riverbanks in summer, Gostenhof has small bars and alternative venues, and the crowd from Erlangen keeps a few clubs busy at weekends.

Venice centres on the early-evening spritz at bacari along the Fondamenta della Misericordia, with a few later bars around Campo Santa Margherita. After midnight the canals fall silent. That makes for a lovely late walk, but anyone wanting to dance has to head to the mainland.

Nuremberg has the better country for walkers and cyclists. The Reichswald pine forest starts at the edge of town, and Franconian Switzerland, about an hour away, offers limestone towers, caves, village-to-village trails and well-known rock climbing.

Venice's outdoors is the lagoon. Herons, egrets and flamingos feed in the marshes around Torcello and Sant'Erasmo, which you can explore by kayak or in a Venetian rowing lesson, and the sea walls of the Lido and Pellestrina make for flat cycling. Hills, let alone mountains, are an hour or more away.

Both are excellent bases. From Nuremberg, Bamberg, Regensburg and Würzburg are each about an hour by train, and the walled towns of Rothenburg and Dinkelsbühl are a little further.

Venice has a slight edge because its options come both faster and closer. Padua is half an hour away and Verona and Vicenza a little further, while Murano, Burano and Torcello make a day out across the lagoon with no train needed at all.

Nuremberg is far easier with children. As an old toy-making city, it has a Toy Museum, a railway museum with the first German train, a zoo with a dolphin and manatee house, and a play park with water play just outside town. The steep, cobbled castle climb is the only real effort.

Venice delights children with boats, glass-blowing on Murano and the shallow Lido, but practical life is hard. Pushchairs have to be carried over stepped bridges, there are few playgrounds, and summer is hot and crowded. It suits a short stay with older children best.

In Nuremberg, the walled centre is only about 1.5km across, and beyond it U-Bahn, trams and S-Bahn trains run on one ticket to the zoo, the Rally Grounds and Fürth.

Venice is also walked, but with more friction. Alleys dead-end at canals and get people lost, and hundreds of bridges with steps punish wheeled luggage. The vaporetto is a pleasure on the Grand Canal but slow and crowded as everyday transport.

Venice gives shoppers more to look for. Murano glass, Burano lace, papier-mâché masks, marbled paper and velvet furlane are all still made in workshops in Dorsoduro, Castello and on Murano, and fashion houses line the Mercerie. The challenge is avoiding the cheap imports sold as local along the main routes.

Nuremberg's high streets are mostly chain stores. What is worth carrying home is Lebkuchen in decorated tins, wooden toys and crafts from the Handwerkerhof, and in Advent the stalls of the Christkindlesmarkt.

Nuremberg is much the cheaper stay. Meals, beer and transport cost little, and hotels are only a problem during the big trade fairs and the Advent market weeks.

Venice is among Italy's most expensive cities in almost every respect, from hotel rooms near San Marco to boat fares and church entry. The ways to save are to eat cicchetti at the counter, stay in Mestre or the quieter sestieri, and come in late autumn or winter.

Venice has the grander stage. La Fenice, where Verdi and Rossini premiered works, runs a full season of opera, ballet and concerts, and on most evenings there is Vivaldi played in churches and scuole in the city where he worked, though the quality varies.

Nuremberg's Staatstheater, in an Art Nouveau opera house, offers solid repertory, and summer brings the open-air orchestral concert in the Luitpoldhain and free folk music at the Bardentreffen. It is good regional fare rather than a reason to travel.

Nuremberg is a little better for proper bathing. A large thermal spa with sauna gardens is a short U-Bahn ride away in Fürth, and the saline floating pools of Bad Windsheim are about an hour away, though expect the German custom of nude, mixed saunas.

Venice relies on hotel spas, and its nearest thermal towns, Abano and Montegrotto, are about an hour away near Padua. Its real calm comes from the absence of traffic, felt in early mornings in Castello, Cannaregio or on Giudecca, well away from the crowds around San Marco.