Padua or Turin?

Neither city is a place for swimming, but Padua gets you to the sea far more easily. Sottomarina and the Lido of Venice are about an hour away, with shallow, calm Adriatic water that suits small children, even if the beaches themselves are plain rows of umbrellas. From Turin the Ligurian Riviera takes about an hour and three-quarters each way, so in summer most people settle for a lake such as Avigliana instead.

Turin is the stronger food city. Piedmontese cooking is rich and precise, with agnolotti del plin, vitello tonnato and white truffles from the Langhe in autumn, all served with Barolo and Barbaresco. The city also gave the world vermouth and gianduja, and drinking bicerin in an arcaded café is a ritual in itself.

Padua eats more simply, with Venetian home dishes such as bigoli with duck sauce and baccalà, and its morning markets in Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta are a pleasure. The standing spritz and Euganean wines are the highlights, but there are fewer special-occasion restaurants.

The two are about even, but they offer different kinds of sightseeing. Padua's treasures are medieval and religious: Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel, the UNESCO-listed fresco cycles, the Basilica of Saint Anthony with Donatello's bronzes and the university's anatomical theatre. All of them sit in a centre you can cover in a couple of days.

Turin is a former royal capital built around big museums. The Museo Egizio, the Royal Palace, the Savoy residences and the cinema museum inside the Mole fill more days, and modern art at the Castello di Rivoli and the Fiat history at the Lingotto broaden it beyond the past.

Both are student cities where the evening centres on the aperitivo rather than late clubbing, and both go quiet outside term. In Padua the night stays in one place: crowds stand with spritz glasses across Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza dei Signori, then drift into wine bars in the old ghetto.

Turin spreads its evenings across several districts, from the cocktail bars of the Quadrilatero Romano to the pavement crowds of San Salvario and the more alternative Vanchiglia. In summer the Murazzi along the Po add riverside nights, and a few clubs occupy old industrial buildings.

Turin has real mountains within reach. The Gran Paradiso, with ibex and high trails, and the slopes of the Via Lattea are about an hour or an hour and a half away, giving you skiing in winter and hut-to-hut hiking in summer. Closer in, the hill up to Superga and the riverside Valentino park offer easy walks.

Padua's outdoors is gentler. The volcanic Euganean Hills, about 15km off, have vineyard trails and quiet cycling roads, and the Brenta towpaths make level bike rides. Proper mountain walking means a drive of about an hour and a half to Monte Grappa or Asiago.

Padua is one of the best bases in Italy for day trips. Venice is under half an hour by train and Vicenza about fifteen minutes, with Verona, Bologna and Ferrara all around an hour. You can visit several major cities without a car and still have the Brenta villas and the walled towns of Este and Montagnana for quieter days.

Turin's outings are excellent but more spread out. The Langhe wine villages, Alba and Barolo are about an hour south and best done by car, Milan is an hour by fast train, and Genoa and Aosta take about two hours.

Turin keeps children busier. They can ride the glass lift up through the Mole, look at cars in the Museo dell'Automobile and see the mummies at the Museo Egizio, and the rack railway to Superga is a treat on its own. The Zoom park at Cumiana, with animals in open enclosures and summer pools, makes a good day out by car.

Padua is safe, flat and easy with a pushchair, and Prato della Valle gives children room to run. Most of its sights, though, are frescoes and churches, so families tend to rely on Gardaland or the Adriatic beaches.

Padua is the easier city to get around. Almost every sight is within a 20-minute walk under the arcades, a single tram connects the station to the centre, and the main rail lines make car-free day trips simple.

Turin's grid of arcaded streets is easy to walk too, but the city is larger. Its single metro line covers only part of it, and the trams and buses that fill the gaps take longer to learn.

Turin offers more for shoppers. Via Roma has the luxury labels under its arcades, Via Garibaldi the high-street names and Via Maria Vittoria the antique dealers, and the Balon flea market runs every Saturday behind Porta Palazzo. Its chocolate makers and truffle delicatessens are the most distinctive part.

Padua's shopping is pleasant but modest: fashion and shoe shops along the arcades, university bookshops, and cheeses and Euganean wine from the markets, with a large antiques market in Prato della Valle once a month.

Costs are much the same in both, moderate for northern Italy, and hotels in either get dearer during trade fairs. What differs is where you save. Padua's main saving is as a base, since sleeping there is cheaper than in Venice. In Turin a generous aperitivo can replace dinner, but the truffle season and fine dining can push the bill up.

Turin has a far fuller performing arts calendar. The Teatro Regio stages a complete opera and ballet season, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra plays in its own auditorium, there are concerts in Renzo Piano's Lingotto hall, and jazz clubs and music festivals run through the year.

Padua's programme is smaller but real. It has prose theatre and some opera at Teatro Verdi, and chamber concerts in the Sala dei Giganti and the Basilica. For major opera, Padua residents go to the Fenice in Venice or the Arena in Verona.

Padua is the better choice for a restful stay, thanks to Abano Terme and Montegrotto Terme about 12km away. This is one of Europe's largest thermal districts, where mud treatments go back to Roman times, and many of its spa hotels let day visitors use their hot outdoor pools.

Turin has no bathing tradition of its own. Its calm comes from long café breaks and slow walks along the Po, and the nearest real thermal water is at Acqui Terme or in the Aosta valley, close to two hours away.