Rothenburg ob der Tauber or Verona?

Neither city has a coast, but only Verona has proper swimming within easy reach. From Rothenburg it means the town's outdoor pool or an hour's drive to grassy artificial lakes such as the Altmühlsee. Verona has Lake Garda about half an hour away, calm and clear in summer, with lidos, lawns running to the water and Sirmione's flat rock shelves, though the shores are crowded at weekends.

Rothenburg feeds you well rather than memorably: roast pork with dumplings, Schäufele and bratwurst, washed down with Silvaner from the round Bocksbeutel. The choice is narrow, much of the cooking around the Marktplatz is aimed at coach parties, and the better meals are in family guesthouses and wine taverns further out.

Verona has more depth and a much stronger wine culture. Risotto made with Amarone, bigoli with duck and bollito with peppery pearà fill the osterie around Piazza delle Erbe and in Veronetta, while Valpolicella, Soave and Bardolino are made a short drive away. Neither city offers much international food.

Rothenburg is a single, complete picture: ramparts with a covered walkway, the gate towers framing the Plönlein and Riemenschneider's carved altar in St Jakob, all seen in a day. It is a memorable place, but a short visit.

Verona has more layers and more substance. The Roman Arena and theatre, the della Scala tombs, the Romanesque San Zeno and Castelvecchio's art collection in Carlo Scarpa's setting span two thousand years and fill two or three unhurried days.

In Rothenburg, the evening's main event is following the night watchman on his walking tour, followed by a glass in an inn before the lanes go quiet. Verona is no party city either, with no real dance scene in the centre. But the aperitivo hour fills Piazza delle Erbe, the student bars of Veronetta stay busy later, and opera nights send crowds into the streets near midnight.

Rothenburg's countryside is gentle: paths drop from the walls into a valley of mills and meadows, and the Tauber cycle path follows the river past vineyards and villages. It looks best at blossom time and in autumn colour, but there is nothing dramatic.

Verona sits where the plain meets the Alps, which gives it far more variety. Vineyard hills begin just north of the city, Monte Baldo rises steeply above Lake Garda with ridge walks and paragliding, and the Lessinia plateau has beech woods and limestone gorges.

Both are good bases, but they differ in kind. From Rothenburg the outings are towns much like itself: walled Dinkelsbühl, Nördlingen in its meteorite crater, plus Würzburg's Residenz and Nuremberg's castle, almost all easier by car than by branch-line train.

Verona offers more variety, and the trains do most of the work. Venice, Padua's Scrovegni Chapel, Palladio's Vicenza and Mantua are all within about an hour by rail, and Garda's lakeside towns and the Valpolicella and Soave cellars are closer still.

Rothenburg feels like a storybook castle for children: they can walk the ramparts, climb the Rathaus tower and follow the lantern-carrying watchman, and older ones love the Crime Museum. Beyond that there is little for them, and cobbles and steep valley paths make a pushchair hard work.

Verona gives a longer family stay more to do. Gardaland, water parks and Parco Natura Viva's safari section are about half an hour out, the lake has shallow swimming, and the centre is flat and largely free of traffic. Hot summer afternoons and needing a car for most of these are the drawbacks.

Both centres are best on foot, but Verona's is flat while Rothenburg's is cobbled, with a steep climb back from the Tauber valley. Further afield the gap widens. Rothenburg sits at the end of a branch line, so most journeys involve a change at Steinach, and its buses are sparse. Verona has fast, frequent trains to Venice, Milan and the lake, though its hill villages still call for a car.

Rothenburg's shops are dominated by Christmas, with year-round glass baubles, nutcrackers and Erzgebirge carvings plus a famously atmospheric December market, and very little else. Verona offers more general shopping, with Italian fashion labels along marble-paved Via Mazzini and boutiques on Corso Porta Borsari. Its best buys are still edible ones, such as Amarone, Garda olive oil and pandoro.

Costs are much the same in both, but the savings come from different places. Rothenburg charges a tourist premium on rooms inside the walls and meals by the Marktplatz, highest in December and on summer weekends, so a guesthouse in a nearby village is the way to cut costs.

In Verona, food can be cheap at Veronetta's student osterie and wine counters, but central hotels become scarce and expensive on opera nights and during the trade fairs. Staying near the station or across the river helps.

Rothenburg's stage is mostly its own history: the costumed Meistertrunk play, a small summer open-air theatre and organ concerts in St Jakob. Verona is in a different league. Grand opera on the Arena's ancient tiers runs on most summer nights, the Roman theatre hosts Shakespeare, dance and jazz, and the Teatro Filarmonico keeps a season going through the cooler months.

The two towns relax you in similar ways, through quiet walks in the hours when the day crowds have gone. Rothenburg's walls and valley are very still in the early morning, but thermal bathing means a drive of about an hour to Bad Windsheim's salt-water pool or Bad Mergentheim.

Verona has warm springs closer and in nicer settings. Sirmione's thermal pools look out over Lake Garda, a spring-fed lake near Lazise sits in an old villa garden, and in town there are long lunches and the terraces of the Giardino Giusti.