San Marino or Venice?

Both look onto the same shallow, sandy Romagna and Veneto shore, with water about 25°C in high summer, but Venice is closer to its beach. The Lido is a short vaporetto ride from San Marco, with Pellestrina offering a quieter, wilder stretch further along.

From San Marino the sand of Rimini and Riccione is about half an hour's drive down the mountain, all ordered rows of umbrellas and beach clubs. That makes it a day out to plan, not an afternoon to drift into.

San Marino eats the way the Romagna hills do, with hand-rolled strozzapreti, passatelli in broth, piadina and the Tre Monti wafer cake, but the summit terraces often sell the view more than the cooking. The better meals are down in Borgo Maggiore.

Venice has the more distinctive table: cicchetti and a spritz at a bacaro counter, cuttlefish risotto black with ink, and lagoon crab and mantis shrimp from the Rialto market. It shares San Marino's problem of tourist menus on the main routes, so the good food is found in the quieter sestieri.

San Marino offers one memorable scene: a medieval town on the crest of Monte Titano, the Guaita and Cesta towers joined by a cliffside path, and the Palazzo Pubblico telling the story of an ancient republic. It is atmospheric, but half a day covers it.

Venice is on another scale entirely. The Basilica and Doge's Palace, the palazzi of the Grand Canal, Titian in the Frari, Tintoretto at San Rocco and modern art at the Peggy Guggenheim could fill a week, and the Biennale takes over the Arsenale and Giardini in alternating years.

Neither is a place for a big night, but Venice at least has an evening ritual. The aperitivo crowds fill the bacari around the Rialto and along the Fondamenta della Misericordia, and students keep Campo Santa Margherita going a little later.

San Marino has almost nothing after dark beyond dinner and a glass of wine with the coast's lights below. In summer, the late clubs are a drive away in Rimini and Riccione.

The outdoors is about equal in both, but entirely different in kind. San Marino means height: a limestone ridge of about 740m with cliffs, woodland paths down to Borgo Maggiore and quiet cycling roads through the Montefeltro hills. Venice is flat and watery, with salt marshes around Torcello where herons and flamingos feed, kayaking and rowing lessons on the lagoon, and kilometres of sea wall to cycle on Pellestrina.

Both make good bases, but Venice is easier to use and has more within reach. Fast trains from Santa Lucia reach Padua in about half an hour and Verona and Vicenza soon after, and Murano, Burano and Torcello are boat rides across the lagoon.

San Marino's surroundings are just as rewarding: the fortress of San Leo, Renaissance Urbino, Ravenna's mosaics and the castle at Gradara. The difference is that most of them need a car, because the only regular bus runs down to Rimini.

These two are about level for children, and both make pushchairs hard work, San Marino with its steps and slopes and Venice with its stepped bridges. San Marino's appeal lies in battlements, cliff edges and the cable car, with the purpose-built fun of Italia in Miniatura, Fiabilandia and Riccione's waterparks a drive away.

Venice keeps its treats in the city itself: vaporetto rides, glass-blowing on Murano, the Lido's shallow sand and the dinosaurs at the natural history museum. It suits shorter stays with older children better.

Venice is simpler to get about once you arrive. With no cars at all, the centre can be crossed on foot in about forty minutes, vaporetti run to the Lido and the islands, and trains end right at Santa Lucia, although the bridges are tough on luggage.

San Marino's core is tiny but almost every street is a climb, with a cable car down to Borgo Maggiore. Getting there without a car means the bus from Rimini, and the villages and hill towns beyond are hard to reach without one.

Venice has much more to buy and much more of it made locally: Murano glass, Burano lace, papier-mâché masks, marbled paper and furlane slippers from workshops in Dorsoduro and Castello, plus the big fashion names near San Marco. Look past the imported copies on the main routes.

San Marino's shops are mostly souvenirs and tax-friendly perfume, watches and spirits, with an outlet centre in the valley. Collectors will enjoy the republic's stamps and coins, but there is little real craft.

San Marino is the far easier place on the wallet. Its hotels and lower-village trattorias are priced like provincial Italy, the sights cost little, and only the summit terraces carry a premium.

Venice is expensive at nearly every turn, from rooms near San Marco to boat fares and church entry. Staying in Cannaregio, Castello or Mestre and eating standing at the bar helps, but it rarely brings costs close to San Marino's.

Venice has a real stage life: La Fenice, where Verdi and Rossini premiered works, runs a full season of opera, ballet and concerts, the Goldoni puts on drama, and Vivaldi is played in the churches where he worked.

San Marino has a small theatre, summer music in the squares and its costumed Medieval Days festival with crossbows and flag-throwers. For a proper concert season, people head to Bologna or Pesaro.

Neither has a bathing culture of its own, but Venice gives more scope for a restful stay. There are spas in grand palazzi and on the Lido and Giudecca, the thermal pools of Abano Terme are about an hour away, and Castello and Giudecca keep a slow, residential pace away from the crowds.

San Marino offers a few hotel spas and the quiet of the walls at dusk once the day visitors leave, while its summer afternoons around the towers are anything but calm.