Piran or Rome?

Neither is a classic sandy vacation, but in Piran the sea is part of daily life. You swim in clear water from platforms and ladders right below the old town, with the pebble cove at Fiesa and the small sandy beach at Portoroz close by.

In Rome the sea is an outing. Ostia's dark volcanic sand is half an hour away by train, mostly divided into paid lidos that fill with Romans at weekends, and the water is rarely clear. For the prettier coves at Sperlonga you need a longer trip.

Rome is one of the great places in Europe to eat. There is carbonara and cacio e pepe in plain trattorias, Jewish-style artichokes in the Ghetto, offal dishes in Testaccio, and supplì and pizza al taglio on the street. With Trastevere, Monti and Testaccio to choose from, a week of meals need never repeat itself.

Piran eats well but narrowly: grilled fish, squid and scampi buzara by the harbour, with Malvazija and local olive oil, and menus along the water that look much alike. For more range you have to drive into Istria.

This is where the two differ most. Piran's sight is the town itself: the Venetian Gothic lanes around Tartini Square, the view from St George's and the old walls, and a small maritime museum. A day covers it.

Rome has the Colosseum, the Forum and the Pantheon, the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, the Borghese Gallery and Caravaggios above side altars. That is enough for weeks rather than a day, and a casual walk between them passes obelisks and aqueduct arches.

Piran goes quiet soon after a sunset glass on the Punta or Tartini Square, and the only alternative is the casino and a few summer clubs in Portoroz.

Rome's evenings run late and mostly outdoors. Aperitivo leads on to the wine bars of Trastevere, cocktails in Monti, cheap student bars in San Lorenzo and Pigneto's arty crowd. It is not a city for dancing until dawn, but it gives you a real night out, which Piran does not.

Both offer gentle outdoors at its best in spring and autumn, but of different kinds. Piran's is coastal: kayaking under the flysch cliffs at Strunjan, wading birds on the Secovlje salt pans, the Parenzana cycle route through olive groves, and the Skocjan caves on the Karst.

Rome's begins inside the city, in the villa parks and along the Appian Way among tombs and ruins. The crater lakes of the Alban Hills are close, and real mountains, with winter skiing at Terminillo, are about ninety minutes away.

Both are good bases, but Rome reaches further and more easily. Ostia Antica, Tivoli, the Etruscan tombs of Tarquinia and cliff-top Orvieto are all close, and high-speed trains put Florence and Naples within about ninety minutes, with no car needed.

Piran's strength is sitting on three borders. Trieste, Rovinj and the Istrian hill towns of Motovun and Groznjan, Predjama Castle and Ljubljana are all within reach, plus a summer boat to Venice. Without a railway, though, most of these need a hire car.

Neither is built around children, and they come out about even for different reasons. Piran offers a car-free old town, a calm warm sea, the small aquarium and Portoroz's shallow sandy beach, but little to hold restless older children for long.

Rome catches children's interest with gladiators, catacombs and the Bioparco in Villa Borghese. Queues, heat, cobbles that are hard on pushchairs and busy roads make it tiring, though, so it works best in spring or autumn with an unhurried plan.

In both, the centre is best seen on foot, but the scale differs. Piran's car-free peninsula takes a quarter of an hour to cross, and a shuttle links it to the edge-of-town garage and Portoroz. Going further means slow regional buses or a hire car.

Rome's walk from the Colosseum to Trastevere is longer and hard on the feet, and its few metro lines skirt the core. Trains still carry you to Ostia, Tivoli and the rest of Italy without a car.

Rome has the fashion houses of Via Condotti, the young designers and vintage shops of Monti, antique dealers along Via dei Coronari and the sprawling Porta Portese flea market. Piran has a few galleries and souvenir stalls, and its best buys are things to eat and drink: salt from the Secovlje pans, olive oil and coastal wine.

Neither is cheap, but Piran works out a little kinder, especially if you avoid the old town in July and August or stay in Portoroz. Its main pleasures, swimming and walking, cost nothing.

In Rome, rooms in the centre are small and costly through spring and autumn, and the big sights charge entry fees. Standing espresso, pizza al taglio, free water from the fountains and churches full of art all help to soften the daily bill.

Rome has a real season. There is opera and ballet at the Teatro dell'Opera, summer opera among the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, the Santa Cecilia orchestra at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, and a long-running jazz scene.

Piran's music is a summer affair: Tartini concerts in churches, in the monastery cloister and on the main square. Outside the warm months there is little on.

Piran is the easier place to unwind. Portoroz has seawater pools and salt-mud treatments, there is an open-air thalasso spa among the Secovlje lagoons, and the evenings by the bay are car-free.

Rome's centre is loud with scooters and crowds. Wellness there means hotel spas or a trip out to the springs at Bagni di Tivoli or around Viterbo, and for quiet you go to the villa gardens and the Aventine.