Portofino or Turin?

This is where Portofino clearly comes out ahead, though even here swimming takes some effort. You use the rock platforms and ladders towards the lighthouse, the small sheltered bay at Paraggi with its paid beach clubs, or a boat to the pebbles at San Fruttuoso. The water is clear and deep, but the spots are small and fill up in summer.

Turin cannot compete. The nearest sea is the Riviera near Savona, a long day out, and locals who stay in town make do with lakes such as Avigliana or Viverone. If swimming matters, choose Portofino or plan separate days on the coast.

Portofino serves good Ligurian dishes, such as trofie with pesto, fritto misto and the cheese focaccia of nearby Recco. They come from a handful of harbour restaurants where you pay more for the yachts than for the cooking, so keen eaters head out to Camogli or the trattorie in the hills.

Turin is in another league. Its Piedmontese cooking runs from vitello tonnato and agnolotti del plin to white truffles in autumn, with Barolo and Barbaresco to drink. The city also gave the world vermouth, gianduja and the bicerin served in its arcade cafés. Porta Palazzo market adds the cheap, everyday eating that Portofino lacks entirely.

Portofino's culture is the village itself: the ochre harbour, the church of San Giorgio, Castello Brown and, by boat or trail, the abbey of San Fruttuoso. You can see it all in a day, and there is no museum of note.

Turin is a former royal capital with enough to see for a week. The Museo Egizio alone justifies the trip. Around it are the Royal Palace, Palazzo Madama, the cathedral that holds the Shroud, the Savoy residence at Venaria, the cinema museum in the Mole and contemporary art at Rivoli.

In Portofino the evening is a dressed-up aperitivo and dinner facing the yachts, and then very little, especially outside July and August. Anyone wanting more goes along the coast to Santa Margherita or into Genoa.

Turin has a real, if relaxed, evening scene. After the aperitivo, people move on to the wine bars of the Quadrilatero Romano, the crowded pavements of San Salvario and, in summer, the Murazzi along the Po. Clubs in old industrial spaces are there for a later night.

Both are excellent for the outdoors, but in opposite ways. Portofino is all sea and headland. Park trails climb through holm oak and pine to Semaforo Nuovo and drop to San Fruttuoso, with chained sections above the cliffs. Offshore, the marine reserve offers divers red coral and the Christ of the Abyss.

Turin's great outdoors is the Alps, about an hour away. Gran Paradiso has ibex and hut-to-hut hiking in summer, and Sestriere has skiing in winter. Closer in, the hills around Superga and the riverside cycle paths of Valentino park are gentler. You need a car or a train for anything wild, whereas Portofino's trails start at the harbour.

Portofino is a lovely base for days out, and getting there is half the fun. In summer, boats run to Camogli, San Fruttuoso, the Cinque Terre and Portovenere, and Genoa is under an hour away. Outside the ferry season you rely on the trains.

Turin has the wider, more varied choice all year. The Langhe wine villages of Barolo and Barbaresco and the truffle town of Alba are about an hour south, and Milan is an hour away by fast train. The Sacra di San Michele on its rock, Roman Aosta and Lago Maggiore are all within reach.

Portofino is safe, and children enjoy the boats and the walk up to the castle. But the village is built for adults. Steep steps defeat pushchairs and the little sand there is lies mostly in paid clubs, so families tend to stay in Rapallo and make the trip to Genoa's aquarium.

Turin is the easier choice. It has a flat grid with arcades for pushchairs, the glass lift through the Mole, the car museum, the Egyptian mummies, space to run in Valentino park and the rack railway to Superga. Its gap is that there is no zoo or aquarium in town, so the big animal day out is Zoom Torino, best reached by car.

Portofino takes a few minutes to cross on foot, but getting in and out is the problem. There is one narrow coast road from Santa Margherita, parking is scarce, buses are crowded in summer and the ferries run only from spring to autumn.

Turin is simple by comparison. Visitors walk the flat, gridded centre under its arcades from Porta Nuova to the Po. A driverless metro, trams and buses cover the rest, and fast trains link the city to the rest of Italy. You only need a car for the wine hills and the mountains.

Portofino's shopping is a few lanes of big-name fashion, jewellery and resortwear, plus some Ligurian lace and jars of pesto. You can see it all in under an hour.

Turin fills a proper day. There are luxury labels under the arcades of Via Roma, the long pedestrian Via Garibaldi, antique dealers on Via Maria Vittoria and the Balon flea market on Saturdays. The best things to take home are edible: chocolate, truffles and Piedmontese wine. Designer choice is modest for a city of its size.

Portofino is among the most expensive places to stay in Italy. Its hotels are mostly luxury properties, piazzetta prices are set by the view, and loungers, boat hire and parking all cost a lot. Many visitors sleep in Camogli or Rapallo and come over by bus or boat.

Turin is comfortable rather than cheap, but far easier on the wallet. Central hotels are fairly priced outside the big trade fairs, an aperitivo can replace dinner and public transport is inexpensive. Costs climb with fine dining, the truffle season and the main museums.

Portofino has almost nothing beyond the occasional summer concert in the piazzetta or at the castle. An evening of opera means going to the Carlo Felice in Genoa.

Turin runs a full year-round programme. There is opera and ballet at the Teatro Regio, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in its own auditorium, concerts in Renzo Piano's hall at the Lingotto, and jazz clubs and music festivals. Its prose theatre is almost entirely in Italian.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and in both the spas are mainly in hotels. What differs is the kind of calm. Portofino's comes from the sea, long lunches over the water and shaded paths with only birdsong. It is at its best early, late or off-season, when the tour boats have gone.

Turin's calm is urban and steady through the year: slow coffees in historic cafés, evening walks along the Po and quiet afternoons in Valentino park. For real thermal waters, Acqui Terme is a two-hour trip.