San Marino or Verona?

Neither city is on the water, and from both the swimming is a side trip about half an hour away. What you find there is very different. Below San Marino is the Adriatic: long sandy beaches at Rimini and Riccione, with rows of umbrellas and shallow sea that suits small children.

From Verona you go to Lake Garda instead. The water is calm and clear with no tides, and you swim from lidos, grassy lawns, small pebble beaches or the flat limestone shelves at Sirmione. Choose San Marino for sand and sea, Verona for a lake swim.

Verona eats and drinks far better. Its osterie around Piazza delle Erbe and in Veronetta serve Veneto dishes such as risotto all'Amarone, bigoli with duck, and bollito misto with pearà. Valpolicella, Amarone and Soave are all made within a short drive, which makes an evening glass at a wine counter part of the visit.

San Marino's Romagna cooking of piadina, passatelli and hand-rolled pasta is honest enough. But the summit terraces live off the view, and the better meals are down in Borgo Maggiore or across the border.

San Marino's appeal is the setting itself: a medieval town on a cliff edge, Guaita and Cesta linked by a path along the rock, and the story of an ancient republic told in the Palazzo Pubblico and the Basilica. It is striking, but you can see it in half a day.

Verona has far more to see. The Arena and the Roman theatre, the Scaliger tombs, the Romanesque front of San Zeno and Scarpa's Castelvecchio make a UNESCO-listed centre that fills two or three unhurried days.

After dark San Marino offers little more than a quiet dinner on the walls with the lights of the coast below. For a real night out you have to drive down to the clubs and seafront bars of the Riviera.

Verona's nights are modest, but they do happen in town. Aperitivo spills across Piazza delle Erbe and along Corso Porta Borsari, and the student bars of Veronetta stay busy later. In summer the opera crowd leaving the Arena keeps the centre going towards midnight.

San Marino has one fine ridge of limestone, Monte Titano, which rises to about 740m. Its footpaths circle the mountain and look out over the Romagna plain, and the gentle Marecchia valley lies beyond. It makes a lovely morning walk, but there is little more to do outdoors.

Verona has much more within reach. The Valpolicella hills are good for walks among the vines, a long cycle route follows the Adige north, and the Lessinia offers beech woods and gorges. Monte Baldo and the north end of Lake Garda add ridge hikes, paragliding and some of Europe's best windsurfing.

Both make good bases, but Verona's day trips are richer and much easier to reach. Venice, Padua, Vicenza and Mantua are all short train rides away, and the Garda towns and Valpolicella cellars are close at hand.

San Marino has its own fine circuit: the fortress at San Leo, Urbino's Renaissance palace, Gradara and Ravenna's mosaics. The catch is that most of these need a car, because the only regular bus runs down to Rimini.

Verona is easier with children. Gardaland and the Parco Natura Viva safari park are both about half an hour away, and the calm southern shore of Lake Garda suits paddling. In town, the flat, largely car-free centre is easy with a pushchair, and the Arena tends to capture young imaginations.

San Marino has the cable car and battlements that children love. But its steep streets and steps are hard work with a pushchair, and the waterparks, Fiabilandia and Italia in Miniatura are all down on the coast.

The difference here is the slope. In Verona the centre inside the river loop is flat, and the Arena, the churches and Castelvecchio are all a short stroll apart. Trains to Venice, Milan and Peschiera then cover most excursions.

San Marino is also walkable end to end, but almost every street climbs or drops, often by steps, and the cable car links the summit to Borgo Maggiore. Without a car you depend on the bus up from Rimini and infrequent village buses.

Verona has a real shopping street. Via Mazzini, paved in marble, is lined with Italian fashion labels, and the side streets have jewellers and shoe shops. Amarone, Garda olive oil and pandoro make good things to carry home.

San Marino's shopping is mostly souvenirs, collectors' stamps and coins, and lower-tax perfume, watches and spirits, plus an outlet centre on the valley floor. It is a place for bargains on branded goods rather than for browsing.

San Marino is slightly kinder on the wallet. Its prices are those of provincial central Italy, hotels are moderate outside August, and lower taxes make fuel and spirits cheaper. Only the summit terraces and the hotels closest to the towers charge extra.

In Verona, everyday eating at Veronetta osterie and wine counters is fair, and you walk everywhere. Rooms in the historic centre are expensive, though, and become scarce and dear on opera nights and during the big trade fairs.

This is where the two differ most. In Verona, summer evenings mean grand Verdi and Puccini productions in the Roman Arena, with candles lit across the stone tiers. The Teatro Filarmonico runs an opera and concert season in the cooler months, and the Roman theatre hosts Shakespeare, dance and jazz.

San Marino has a small theatre, some open-air music and its Medieval Days festival of crossbows and flag-throwers. For a proper concert, visitors go to Pesaro or Bologna.

Verona has thermal water close by. Sirmione's lakeside spa and the warm spring-fed lake near Lazise are easy outings, and the Caldiero springs east of the city have been used since Roman times. Long lunches and the Giardino Giusti set a slow pace in town.

San Marino has only a few hotel spas. What it offers instead is quiet: once the day visitors leave, the walls are yours for an evening walk above the plain.