Padua or Piran?

Piran is the place to swim, though not to lie on sand. You climb down ladders and off concrete ledges into clear water below the walls and around the Punta, Fiesa adds a pebble cove, and Portoroz and Strunjan are close when you want sunbeds or cliffs.

From Padua the sea is a day out. The nearest beaches at Sottomarina and the Lido take an hour to reach, and they are long, flat strips of bathing establishments. The water there is shallow and calm, which suits small children.

Padua offers far more to eat. Its twin morning markets under the Palazzo della Ragione, Venetian dishes such as bigoli with duck sauce and baccalà, Euganean wines and the early-evening spritz ritual give the city a real food culture, though fine dining is thin.

Piran eats simply and well by the water: scampi buzara, grilled squid, Malvazija and its own salt. The harbour menus repeat one another, though, and anything more ambitious means a drive inland into Istria.

These two are far apart on sights. Padua has one of the key works of European painting in Giotto's Scrovegni frescoes, along with a UNESCO-listed group of fourteenth-century fresco cycles, the great pilgrimage basilica of Saint Anthony, the world's oldest permanent anatomical theatre and a botanical garden from 1545.

In Piran the town itself is the sight. You wander Venetian Gothic lanes, cross the oval Tartini Square and climb to St George's and the walls for the view over the roofs. Its maritime museum and monastery cloister are pleasant, but a day covers them.

Neither town is a clubbing destination, but Padua has much more going on after dark. The students fill the squares around the Palazzo della Ragione with spritz drinkers, and wine bars in the old ghetto stay busy on term-time weeknights. Piran's evening is a glass of wine at sunset and an early night, and for anything livelier you have to go to Portoroz's beach bars and casino.

The outdoors is about as good in both, but different in kind. From Padua you head inland and uphill: the volcanic Euganean Hills for vineyard trails and road cycling, level towpaths along the Brenta, and the pre-Alps at Monte Grappa and Asiago for proper mountain walks.

Piran's nature is coastal and gentle. You can walk the cliff path at Strunjan, watch wading birds at the Secovlje salt pans, kayak below the flysch cliffs, cycle the Parenzana into Istria, or go underground at the Skocjan caves on the Karst.

Both make good bases, but Padua is outstanding. Venice is close enough by train to visit on several days, Vicenza is a quarter of an hour away, and Verona, Bologna and Ferrara are easy too. On top of that come the Brenta villas and the walled towns around the Euganean Hills.

Piran's strength is reaching three countries. Trieste, the Istrian hill towns of Motovun and Groznjan, Rovinj, Predjama Castle and Ljubljana are all within range, but most of them really need a car.

Piran is the easier family choice, mainly because of the sea. Children have warm, calm water, a harbour aquarium, car-free lanes and a sandy shallow beach at Portoroz next door. Swimming in town is off ledges, though, and the lanes up to the church are steep.

Padua is flat, safe and welcoming in its trattorias, and Prato della Valle gives children room to run. The sights are aimed at adults, so families end up driving out to Gardaland or Lake Garda.

Both centres are easy on foot, but Padua's railway station sets it apart. Main lines run in every direction, and a tram, buses and everyday cycling cover the city. You need no car for the sights or for rail day trips to Venice, Vicenza or Verona, only for the Euganean Hills and the villa countryside.

Piran is car-free and takes a quarter of an hour to cross, with a shuttle to Portoroz. There is no railway, though, and regional buses are slow, so exploring the area usually means hiring a car.

Padua gives you a proper afternoon's browsing. It has arcaded streets of Italian fashion and shoe shops, bookshops for the university, delicatessens under the Palazzo della Ragione and a monthly antiques market on Prato della Valle. Piran has a handful of galleries and souvenir stalls, and its best buys are salt flower from Secovlje, olive oil and coastal wine.

Padua is the cheaper of the two, mainly because its costs hardly change with the seasons. It is a university and trade-fair city rather than a resort, so rooms stay moderate for most of the year, except in fair weeks and at graduation time. Many visitors also find it cheaper to sleep here and reach Venice by train than to stay in the lagoon. Spending day to day is modest as well: market food, a spritz taken standing up and a centre you can cross on foot.

What you pay in Piran depends on when you go. In high summer the peninsula has few rooms and the sea views are built into the bill, so a week there costs noticeably more than the same week in Padua. In May, June or September the gap narrows, and because a day of swimming and walking costs nothing, a quiet seaside stay can still be inexpensive. The extra cost comes when you want to see the area, which usually means hiring a car. In Padua the trains do that job.

Neither is a big stage, but Padua plays all year. Teatro Verdi stages theatre and some opera, a chamber orchestra gives a season of concerts in the Sala dei Giganti and the Basilica, and the Fenice in Venice and the Verona Arena are close by. Piran's music is mainly summer concerts in honour of Tartini, in churches and on the square, and outside summer there is little to attend.

Both have spa traditions nearby, and Padua's is a little stronger. Abano and Montegrotto, about 12km away, form one of Europe's largest thermal districts, with hot mineral pools and mud that has been used for treatments since Roman times, so you can easily have a soak after a morning of sightseeing.

Piran's version comes from the sea: seawater pools and brine baths in Portoroz, an outdoor salt-mud spa among the Secovlje lagoons, and a car-free pace that makes it easy to switch off.