Padua or Saint-Tropez?

Padua has no beach of its own. The nearest sand, at Sottomarina or on the Lido of Venice, is about an hour away and consists of flat, shallow, organised stretches. It works for a paddling day out but not as the reason to come.

In Saint-Tropez the beach is the whole summer. Pampelonne gives you about 5km of pale sand and clear water, with beach clubs and public stretches side by side, and quieter coves at Escalet, Cap Taillat and Gigaro along the coast path.

Padua eats better and more honestly day to day. Venetian dishes such as bigoli with duck sauce and baccalà, the morning markets of Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta, Euganean wines and the evening spritz make good food easy to find at ordinary prices.

Saint-Tropez has grilled fish, bouillabaisse, rosé and the cream-filled tarte tropézienne, and its hotel dining rooms outclass anything in Padua's narrow fine-dining range. Below that top end, though, many quayside places trade on the view, and simple, good-value meals take some hunting.

There is little contest here. Padua holds Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel, a UNESCO-listed group of fourteenth-century fresco cycles, the Basilica of Saint Anthony with Donatello's bronzes, the university's anatomical theatre and the world's oldest botanical garden still on its original site. That is several days of serious sightseeing.

Saint-Tropez offers the Musée de l'Annonciade, with its Signac and Fauvist paintings, a citadel with a maritime museum and the lanes of La Ponche. It is a pleasant day's worth, and most visitors come for the setting.

Saint-Tropez in July and August has the bigger night out: beach-club parties at Pampelonne in the afternoon, champagne on the harbour terraces and famous clubs open until dawn, with table service and dress codes to match. By October it has gone quiet.

Padua's evenings are smaller and spread more evenly through the year. Students and locals stand over spritzes in Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signori, then move on to wine bars around the old ghetto. It goes quiet in high summer, just when Saint-Tropez is at its loudest.

Saint-Tropez puts the outdoors right outside the door. The Sentier du Littoral runs past pine-backed coves to Cap Camarat and Cap Taillat, the Massif des Maures has cork-oak forest for hiking and mountain biking, and the gulf is good for sailing and snorkelling, with the national park islands of Port-Cros and Porquerolles within reach.

Padua's countryside starts farther out and is gentler. The Euganean Hills, about 15km away, offer vineyard trails and cycling, and the Brenta towpaths make level rides. Proper mountain walking in the pre-Alps is about an hour and a half away by car.

Padua is one of the best bases in Italy for day trips. Venice is under half an hour by train and can be visited again and again. Vicenza's Palladian buildings, Verona, Treviso, Bologna and Ferrara are all an easy rail ride away, and closer in are the Brenta villas and the walled towns of Este, Monselice and Montagnana.

Saint-Tropez's outings are charming but smaller: the hilltop villages of Ramatuelle and Gassin, Grimaud's castle, the canals of Port Grimaud and a full day on Porquerolles. Almost all of them depend on roads that jam in high summer.

Both are workable with children rather than built for them, but in different ways. Padua is a flat, safe, largely car-free city where children are welcome in any trattoria and can run in Prato della Valle, though the sights are mostly frescoes. For fun, families make day trips to Gardaland and Lake Garda.

Saint-Tropez offers what Padua lacks, gently shelving sand at Pampelonne and Gigaro, but its harbour and beach clubs are aimed at adults. The cost and the summer traffic often push families to stay across the gulf instead.

Padua is far easier. Its centre is compact and arcaded, with the main sights within a 20-minute walk. A tram runs from the station to Prato della Valle, and main-line trains go in every direction, so a car is optional.

Saint-Tropez is tiny on foot but awkward beyond it. There is no railway, the buses are slow, the main beaches are several kilometres out, and the single gulf road jams for hours in July and August. The passenger boats from Sainte-Maxime and Port Grimaud are often the best way in.

Saint-Tropez is the stronger shopping stop, at least for luxury and resort wear. The big fashion houses keep summer boutiques behind the port, and the hand-stitched Tropézienne leather sandal is a real local craft. Place des Lices adds linen, baskets and pottery.

Padua's arcades have Italian fashion, shoes and university bookshops, but its best buys are edible: cheese, cured meats and Euganean wine from the markets, plus a monthly antiques market on Prato della Valle.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Padua costs what a northern Italian city usually costs, and many people stay there because it is a cheaper bed than Venice. Market food, standing drinks and walking everywhere keep daily spending low.

Saint-Tropez is priced for the yachting crowd. Rooms, loungers, harbour meals and even a coffee on the port are dear, and taxis or parking add to the bill. Visitors on a budget usually stay inland or across the gulf and come over for the day.

Padua has a modest but year-round programme. Teatro Verdi stages drama and some opera, and the chamber orchestra plays in the Sala dei Giganti and the Basilica of Saint Anthony. The Fenice in Venice and the summer Arena in Verona are close enough for an evening.

Saint-Tropez has open-air jazz and classical concerts on the citadel in summer, plus the Bravade procession each May, but little else. Serious theatre or opera means a long drive.

Padua has a real advantage here. About 12km away, Abano Terme and Montegrotto Terme form one of Europe's largest thermal districts, with hot mineral pools and mud treatments dating back to Roman times, and many spa hotels take day visitors. A soak after a morning of frescoes is easy to arrange.

Saint-Tropez has no bathing tradition, only polished hotel spas meant for their own guests. Its restfulness depends on the calendar: loud in high summer, but slow and calm in May, June and September.