Rovinj or Turin?

This is the one area where Rovinj is far ahead. The Golden Cape shore gives you several kilometres of limestone ledges, pebble coves and bathing platforms above very clear water. Taxi boats run to quieter coves on St Catherine and Red Island. It is rock rather than sand, so pack water shoes.

Turin has no sea at all. The Ligurian Riviera is a long day's round trip, and the lakes at Avigliana or Viverone are what locals use for a summer dip. Anyone who wants to swim in the sea should not choose Turin.

Both sit in serious truffle country, but Turin eats on a much bigger scale. Its cooking includes agnolotti del plin, vitello tonnato and bollito misto, with Barolo and Barbaresco on the wine lists. It is the home of vermouth, gianduja and the bicerin served in the arcade cafés, and Porta Palazzo is one of Europe's great open-air markets.

Rovinj is a fishing town's table. You get grilled fish, scampi buzara and Istrian pasta with truffle, washed down with Malvazija and Teran. It is very good for a week, but the harbour menus are aimed at passing visitors and there is little cheap everyday food.

In Rovinj the old town is the sight. Pastel Venetian houses climb to St Euphemia's bell tower, and the Batana House and a small town museum make up most of the rest. One unhurried afternoon covers it.

Turin is a former royal capital with days of material. The Museo Egizio is the main draw, alongside the Royal Palace and armoury, Palazzo Madama, the cathedral of the Shroud and the ring of Savoy residences out to Venaria. Add the cinema museum in the Mole, the car museum and contemporary art at Rivoli.

A Rovinj evening means a long dinner and then a drink on the rocks as the sun sets. A few waterfront bars stay busy in summer, but the old town is mostly asleep by midnight and largely closes down out of season.

Turin goes on longer. The aperitivo leads on to wine bars in the Quadrilatero Romano, students out on the pavements of San Salvario, a more alternative crowd in Vanchiglia and the riverside Murazzi in summer. It is sociable rather than wild, but it runs all year.

Rovinj's outdoors is at sea level and gentle. You can walk or cycle the pine paths of the Golden Cape, kayak or dive around the archipelago and take a boat up the Lim Fjord, but there are no real mountains.

Turin has the Alps on its horizon and within reach. Gran Paradiso's ibex and high trails, hut-to-hut hiking in the Susa valley and skiing around Sestriere are all an hour or so away. Closer in, there are the Superga hills and the walled Mandria forest.

Rovinj has good outings close by. Pula's amphitheatre, the mosaics at Porec and the hill towns of Motovun and Groznjan are all in reach, and Piran and Trieste are just over the border. Almost all of it needs a car.

Turin offers more, and much of it you can reach without driving. The Langhe wine villages, Alba and Barolo are an hour south, Milan is an hour away by fast train, and the Sacra di San Michele sits above the Susa valley. Genoa and Aosta both make full days out.

The two are fairly evenly matched for children, but they offer different kinds of vacation. Rovinj means outdoor resort life: boat trips, gelato, shady park paths, and campsites with pools and playgrounds. Its rocky shore and steep, polished cobbles take care with small children.

Turin is a flat, arcaded city where a pushchair is easy. Older children will enjoy the glass lift up the Mole, the mummies in the Museo Egizio and the rack railway to Superga. Its main animal day out, Zoom Torino, is a drive away.

Inside Rovinj you walk everywhere, with the car-free old town and a promenade out to the swimming rocks. But there is no railway, so the wineries, hill towns and much of the coast really need a car.

Turin is easier overall. Its flat grid of arcades makes walking simple, a driverless metro line and trams cover longer trips, and the main stations connect you to Milan and the rest of Italy. You only need a car for the hills and the mountains.

Rovinj is for small things to take home, such as truffle products, olive oil, Teran wine and lavender. The best of it is the line of galleries and artists' studios on Grisia.

Turin is a real city for shopping. There are luxury labels under the Via Roma arcades, high-street shops along Via Garibaldi, antique dealers on Via Maria Vittoria and the Balon flea market behind Porta Palazzo. Its chocolate makers and delicatessens are the most distinctive part.

Turin is the easier city on the budget. Central hotels are fairly priced for most of the year, a generous aperitivo can stand in for dinner, and the market and the trattorie are good value.

Rovinj is among the pricier stops on the Croatian coast. Summer rooms near the old town and fish sold by weight on the harbour add up fast. Private apartments, campsites and a trip in late spring or September bring the cost down.

Rovinj has little beyond summer. You may find occasional concerts in St Euphemia, open-air music on the squares and the bitinada, the old unaccompanied singing of the batana fishermen, now and then. For big shows, people go to the arena in Pula.

Turin has a full year-round calendar. There is opera and ballet at the Teatro Regio, the RAI orchestra in its own auditorium, concerts at the Lingotto, jazz clubs, and theatre at the Carignano, although the plays are in Italian.

Neither has a bathing tradition, so it comes down to the setting. In Rovinj, the resort hotels along the Golden Cape have the better spas, and slow lunches with late swims off the rocks in May, June or September do the rest.

Turin's calm is urban: long coffee breaks in historic cafés, walks under the arcades and afternoons in Valentino park. Real thermal baths are almost two hours away.