Stuttgart or Venice?

For anything to do with the sea, Venice wins easily. The Lido is a short boat ride from San Marco and has kilometres of fine Adriatic sand with shallow, warm water that suits children. Pellestrina is quieter, and Jesolo is there for a full resort day. The water is greenish rather than clear, though, and most visitors give it one afternoon.

Stuttgart has no beach at all. The Neckar is a working river and Max-Eyth-See is not for bathing, so summer swimming means the outdoor pools, some of them fed by mineral springs. The nearest open water is Lake Constance, more than two hours away.

The two are about equal for food, but the eating is very different. Stuttgart is about sitting down to hearty Swabian dishes like Maultaschen, Käsespätzle and Zwiebelrostbraten in wine taverns, washed down with Trollinger from vineyards inside the city and, in season, a glass in a grower's Besen. It also has a deeper fine-dining tier.

Venice is better eaten standing up. Cicchetti and a spritz at the bacari around the Rialto, then lagoon cooking such as black cuttlefish risotto with fish from the market. The tourist restaurants near San Marco are poor, so the good meals take some seeking out in Cannaregio or Castello.

Venice is in another league. The city itself is the monument, with six centuries of palazzi, the Basilica and the Doge's Palace, and art that goes from the Accademia and San Rocco to the Guggenheim and the Biennale. A week barely covers it, and the smaller churches hold masterpieces too.

Stuttgart's sights are mostly modern: the Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums, the Staatsgalerie's postmodern wing and the Le Corbusier houses at the Weissenhof Estate. Bombing left the old core in pockets around Schlossplatz, and two or three days is enough.

Neither city is a party destination, but Stuttgart keeps going later. Theodor-Heuss-Strasse fills at weekends, clubs sit in basements and old industrial spaces, and the Cannstatter Volksfest and the wine village bring big crowds in late summer and autumn.

Venice's evening peaks at aperitivo time on the Fondamenta della Misericordia. After that, Campo Santa Margherita has a few student bars, and by midnight the canals are dark and silent. That makes for a lovely late walk, but not much of a night out.

Walkers and cyclists get more from Stuttgart. Trails start almost at the edge of the centre, through vineyards and the deer forests of Rotwildpark and Schönbuch. The Swabian Jura's cliffs and caves and the fir ridges of the northern Black Forest are each about an hour away.

Venice's outdoors is the flat world of the lagoon: marshes around Torcello with herons and flamingos, kayaking, rowing lessons and bike rides along the Pellestrina sea walls. There is little green space in the city, and real mountains need a long journey to the Dolomites.

Both cities are excellent bases, with Venice slightly ahead. Fast trains reach Padua's Giotto frescoes, Palladio's Vicenza and Roman Verona, and the lagoon adds Murano, Burano and Torcello without a station in sight.

From Stuttgart the trips are more German in flavour: Ludwigsburg's baroque palace, half-timbered Esslingen, student Tübingen and Heidelberg's castle are all close, and Hohenzollern, Maulbronn and Ulm's spire are further out. Strasbourg makes a long day across the border into France.

Stuttgart is the easier city with children. Wilhelma's zoo and gardens fill a day, Killesberg has a narrow-gauge railway and a lookout tower, Ludwigsburg has a fairy-tale garden, and beer gardens welcome families. The hills are the only real effort with a pushchair.

Venice thrills children with boats and car-free alleys, and the Lido and the Murano glass furnaces go down well. The daily reality is harder: stepped bridges, summer crowds and heat, and few parks or playgrounds. It works best as a short stay with older children.

Both are easy to get around, but in different ways. Stuttgart's flat centre is walkable, and an integrated ticket covers the light rail, S-Bahn, rack railway and funicular up the steep sides of the basin, with Stäffele stairways as shortcuts on foot.

In Venice you walk everywhere, through alleys that twist and end at canals, and use the slow vaporetto or a traghetto across the Grand Canal. The constant bridge steps make luggage and wheels a struggle in a way Stuttgart's trams never do.

Shoppers after brands will be happier in Stuttgart. Königstrasse runs the length of the centre with the familiar high-street names, Breuninger covers luxury and designer fashion, and the outlet village at Metzingen is about half an hour away. Independent shops around Calwer Strasse add some variety, though crafts and markets are thin.

Venice sells what it has made for centuries: Murano glass, Burano lace, papier-mâché masks, marbled paper and furlane slippers, best bought from workshops in Dorsoduro, Castello and on Murano where you can see the work being done. Cheap imports crowd the main routes. There are no large department stores, so for ordinary everyday shopping you have to go to Mestre.

Stuttgart is clearly cheaper, though not cheap. Its hotels fill and get expensive during trade fairs, but they drop at weekends, and tavern meals and day tickets are fairly priced.

Venice is among the most expensive stays in Italy. Central rooms, boat fares, café tables on the piazza and church entry all add up. Cicchetti at the bar, a bed in the quieter sestieri or Mestre, and a late autumn or winter visit help keep costs down.

Stuttgart's stage life is the stronger of the two. The Stuttgart Ballet, famous since Cranko, and a bold opera company share the state theatre, while the Liederhalle has a deep Bach tradition and there are big musicals in Möhringen and jazz during the week.

Venice has La Fenice, where Verdi and Rossini held premieres, plus the Biennale festivals. Most visitors, though, end up at a Vivaldi concert in a church, and those range from excellent to routine. There is little else in the way of live music.

For a restful break, Stuttgart has something Venice lacks: some of Europe's most productive mineral springs. They feed the baths at Cannstatt and Leuze, where you soak in naturally fizzy warm water indoors and out, with saunas at the bigger baths.

Venice offers hotel spas in palazzi and on the Lido, and thermal mud at Abano Terme about an hour away. Its calm comes from the absence of traffic, at dawn on Giudecca or in late-evening Castello, not from any bathing culture.