Padua or Strasbourg?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Padua at least has the sea within about an hour. Sottomarina and the Lido of Venice have the shallow, calm Adriatic, with long rows of umbrellas and bathing establishments, which is fine for a day of paddling with children.

Strasbourg has no sea at all. People swim there in summer in lifeguarded gravel-pit lakes such as the Baggersee, which you can reach by tram. They are pleasant on a hot afternoon on the grass, but not a reason to go.

Both cities eat heartily and well, and the main difference is where the eating happens. In Padua it happens outdoors: the morning markets in Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta, bigoli and baccalà in trattorias, and the early-evening spritz drunk standing in the squares, with the grand Caffè Pedrocchi as its institution.

Strasbourg eats indoors in the wood-panelled winstub, over choucroute, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée with a pichet of Alsace Riesling, and it has more fine dining, including local foie gras. Its rich cooking is at its best in a cold month, while Padua's risottos and spritz suit a warm evening.

The two are close in weight but different in kind. Padua's great sights are paintings and church interiors, while in Strasbourg the main sight is the town itself. Padua's UNESCO listing covers its fourteenth-century fresco cycles. Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel leads them, and its short, timed visits are worth booking ahead. There are more frescoes in the Eremitani church and the Baptistery. Add the Basilica of Saint Anthony with Donatello's bronzes and the old anatomical theatre at Palazzo Bo, and you have a centre that is rich but can be seen quickly.

In Strasbourg the listing takes in the streets themselves. The Grande Ile has the pink sandstone cathedral and its astronomical clock, Petite France has its timber-framed lanes, and the Neustadt has its imperial avenues. The Palais Rohan museums and the European institutions add variety, and the main sights fill two or three unhurried days.

Both are university towns where evenings are sociable rather than late, and neither has many clubs. In Padua the evening happens outdoors in the squares, with students and locals standing over spritz glasses around the Palazzo della Ragione, and the city goes quiet in high summer and the university breaks. Strasbourg's evenings are more of a round of bars, through the beer cellars and student bars of Krutenau and, in summer, the riverside terraces.

Strasbourg has better outdoors close by. Within an hour are the forested Vosges, with sandstone castle ruins and the ridge walk at Mont Sainte-Odile. Across the Rhine are the higher fir-covered ridges of the Black Forest, and long, level cycle routes follow the Rhine into Germany.

Padua's nearest high ground is the Euganean Hills, about 15km away: gentle volcanic cones with vineyards, chestnut woods and marked trails. There are also easy towpath rides along the Brenta. Real mountain walking on Monte Grappa or the Asiago plateau means about an hour and a half by car.

Both are good bases, but Padua is exceptional. Venice is under half an hour by train, Vicenza a quarter of an hour, and Verona, Treviso, Bologna and Ferrara around an hour. In a week you can see several of Italy's great cities without changing hotel.

Strasbourg's list is shorter but quite different. It has Colmar and the Alsace wine villages such as Riquewihr and Eguisheim, then Baden-Baden, Freiburg and Basel over the border. The wine route is easier by car or bike, whereas nearly all of Padua's trips work by train.

Strasbourg is the better place to bring children. As well as a flat, mostly car-free centre, it has things built for them: canal boat trips, playgrounds and rowing on the Orangerie lake, the Le Vaisseau science centre and the moving figures of the astronomical clock. For days out there are Europa-Park and the stork and monkey parks of the Vosges.

Padua is safe, compact and easy with a pushchair, and Prato della Valle gives children room to run, but there is little else aimed at them. Families staying there usually fill the gaps with trips to Gardaland, Lake Garda or the Adriatic.

Both centres are flat and you can walk across either in about twenty minutes, so neither needs a car. Strasbourg has the fuller tram network, reaching the European quarter and across the Rhine to Kehl, and it is one of France's best cycling cities. Padua's tram matters less than its railway station, which puts Venice, Verona and Bologna within quick reach, and its arcades keep walkers out of the sun and rain.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Strasbourg has a little more. Place Kléber and the Rue des Grandes Arcades have a department store and chain stores, and the lanes near the cathedral have independent shops. Soufflenheim pottery, printed linens and kougelhopf moulds make distinctive things to take home, and the Christmas market adds crafts in December.

Padua's arcades have Italian shoes, fashion and university bookshops, but its strength is food to take home from the markets and the delicatessens beneath the Palazzo della Ragione. Once a month there is a Sunday antiques market in Prato della Valle.

Padua is the cheaper of the two. Its hotels are moderately priced, which is why many visitors sleep there rather than in Venice, and a standing spritz with market food costs little.

Strasbourg is not expensive for France. Its free sights, cheap trams and good-value wine by the pichet all help, but rooms cost more and rise sharply during the Christmas market and the weeks when the European Parliament sits. Padua's rooms also go up around trade fairs and graduation season, so in both cities it pays to choose your dates.

Strasbourg has much the richer stage. The Opéra national du Rhin, a full philharmonic season, the Théâtre National de Strasbourg and the autumn Musica festival of contemporary music give it a programme worth planning a trip around, and there is a jazz festival too.

Padua offers less: theatre and some opera at the Teatro Verdi, and chamber concerts in the Sala dei Giganti and the Basilica of Saint Anthony. For major opera, visitors staying in Padua take the train to the Fenice in Venice or to the Arena in Verona in summer.

Padua has the bigger spa draw right on its edge. Abano Terme and Montegrotto Terme, about 12km away, form one of Europe's largest thermal districts. Dozens of hotel pools there take day visitors, and mud treatments go back to Roman times.

Strasbourg's own bathhouse is the tiled, early twentieth-century Bains municipaux with a hammam and saunas, and the grander baths of Baden-Baden are under an hour away across the Rhine. Both cities move at an unhurried pace, though Strasbourg's centre fills with Christmas market crowds in December.