Rothenburg ob der Tauber or Trieste?

Rothenburg sits on a hilltop deep inland, so swimming means the town pool or an hour's drive to the grassy shores of the Altmühlsee and the other Franconian lakes. It is not a place for a water vacation.

Trieste has the Adriatic on its doorstep, though not in the form of sand. Locals spread towels on the concrete terraces and lawns at Barcola and climb down ladders into clear sea, and prettier pebble coves sit below the cliffs at Sistiana, Duino and Grignano. Anyone happy to swim off rocks will use the sea every day in summer.

Both places have a fairly narrow table, but Trieste's is far more interesting. Rothenburg serves solid Franconian fare such as Schäufele, bratwurst and dumplings with Silvaner in its squat Bocksbeutel, and the best meals are in family guesthouses and wine taverns away from the coach-party restaurants on the Marktplatz.

Trieste mixes Italian, Austrian and Slavic cooking: boiled pork carved at the counter of an old buffet, jota soup, marinated sardoni and strudel. Its coffee culture, with its own ordering vocabulary, and the seasonal osmize farmhouses on the Karst give eating there a character Rothenburg cannot match.

The two are about equally rewarding but in very different ways. In Rothenburg the town itself is the sight: one complete medieval ensemble of walls, towers and gabled houses, crowned by Riemenschneider's Holy Blood Altar in St Jakob's and the Medieval Crime Museum. It is intense but quickly seen.

Trieste spreads its interest across many eras: a Roman theatre, the mosaics of San Giusto cathedral, the Habsburg palaces of Piazza Unità and the Borgo Teresiano, Miramare Castle, a great synagogue and the Risiera di San Sabba memorial. Its literary ghosts, Joyce and Svevo among them, add a layer Rothenburg has no equivalent for.

Rothenburg barely has a nightlife. After the day visitors leave, the evening's event is the night watchman's lantern tour, followed by a glass in an inn, and the lanes are silent by eleven.

Trieste is livelier without being a party city. Spritz and white wine around Piazza Unità and the Canal Grande, student bars in the old town and summer kiosks along Barcola make for pleasant late evenings, though clubs are few.

Rothenburg's countryside is soft and pastoral: paths drop from the walls to mills and meadows along the Tauber, and the valley cycle path follows the river through vineyards. It looks best in blossom or autumn colour, but there is nothing wild.

Trieste has far more drama within reach of the city buses. The limestone Karst rises right behind the streets, with the Strada Napoleonica high above the gulf, the cliff-top Rilke Path, the Val Rosandra gorge and the vast Grotta Gigante. The gulf adds sailing, snorkelling and kayaking in the Miramare reserve.

Both make good bases, Rothenburg for one tight theme and Trieste for sheer variety. From Rothenburg the Romantic Road delivers more walled towns, Dinkelsbühl and crater-ringed Nördlingen, plus Würzburg's Residenz and Nuremberg about an hour away, but you really need a car.

Trieste reaches into three countries: Aquileia's mosaics and star-shaped Palmanova in Friuli, Piran and Ljubljana in Slovenia, Istria in Croatia, and Venice by train in about two hours.

Rothenburg delights children briefly: walking the covered ramparts, climbing the Rathaus tower, trailing the night watchman and shuddering at the Crime Museum's shame masks. After a day or two there is little left, and the cobbles are hard on pushchairs.

Trieste keeps families busy for longer with the Grotta Gigante, the gardens at Miramare, an aquarium, a science centre and summer days at Barcola. Rocky swimming and stepped streets make it better for older children than toddlers.

Both centres are walkable, Rothenburg's tiny and traffic-free inside the walls, Trieste's flat along the waterfront but steep behind it. The difference lies beyond the centre. Rothenburg sits at the end of a branch line with a change at Steinach and thin regional buses, so a car is almost essential for exploring.

Trieste has a dense bus network out to Barcola, Miramare and the Karst, plus passenger boats across the bay to Muggia, and only needs a car for wine country and border trips.

Neither is a shopping destination. Rothenburg's shops are devoted to Christmas: baubles, nutcrackers and Erzgebirge carvings all year, teddy bears and cuckoo clocks besides, with one of Germany's most atmospheric Christmas markets in December. Almost everything is aimed at visitors.

Trieste offers a broader if modest mix: ordinary Italian fashion around Corso Italia, antique and second-hand shops in the old town, and edible souvenirs such as freshly roasted coffee, Karst wine and presnitz.

Trieste is the somewhat easier city on the wallet. Coffee at the bar and a buffet plate are cheap, buses cost little, and swimming at Barcola and walks on the Karst cost nothing.

Rothenburg carries a tourist premium on its old-town rooms and Marktplatz meals, sharpest in December and on summer weekends. Staying outside the walls or in a nearby village brings costs down considerably.

Rothenburg's performances are mostly about its own past: the costumed Meistertrunk play recalling the Thirty Years' War, a small summer open-air theatre and organ concerts in St Jakob's.

Trieste has a genuine stage life, led by the waterfront Teatro Verdi with its opera and ballet season and a rare Italian fondness for operetta. The Politeama Rossetti, a Slovenian-language theatre and summer concerts in San Giusto's castle courtyard round it out.

Neither has a bathing tradition of its own, so the calm comes from pace in both. In Rothenburg it is the early morning and evening, when the coach groups have gone and the walls and valley fall silent, and real thermal pools at Bad Windsheim and Bad Mergentheim are within an hour's drive.

Trieste's calm is urban and seaside: long sittings over a newspaper in the old coffee houses and sunset walks on the Molo Audace, but for thermal baths you have to leave the area.