Trieste or Verona?

Trieste swims in the open sea and Verona does not. Swimming here means the Adriatic off Barcola's concrete platforms and pine lawns, the cliff coves at Sistiana and Duino, and the marine reserve at Miramare, and it fits easily into an ordinary city day. Sand is almost absent, though.

From Verona, the water means a half-hour trip to Lake Garda, where Sirmione's limestone shelves and the lidos at Lazise and Bardolino offer calm water with no surf. It is pleasant, but the beaches are narrow, crowded at weekends and always a day out rather than a morning habit.

Both are good places to eat without being great restaurant cities, and the difference is in character. Trieste eats in a Central European way: boiled pork carved at the buffet counters, jota soup, fried sardoni and strudel, along with a serious coffee culture and the seasonal osmize farmhouses up on the Karst.

Verona's cooking belongs to the Veneto mainland, with Amarone risotto, bigoli with duck and bollito with pearà served in wood-panelled osterie. Its advantage is wine, with Valpolicella, Soave and Bardolino all made within a short drive.

Verona has the deeper historic centre. Inside the loop of the Adige you find a Roman amphitheatre still in use, a Roman theatre, the Scaliger tombs, San Zeno's bronze doors and Scarpa's Castelvecchio, layered over two thousand years in a walkable space.

Trieste's appeal is more about atmosphere than monuments. The grand sea-facing Piazza Unità, the Habsburg grid of the Borgo Teresiano and white Miramare Castle are its highlights, with the Risiera di San Sabba and the large synagogue telling a twentieth-century story Verona lacks.

Neither city is for a big night out, and both evenings revolve around the aperitivo. Trieste's moves to the Barcola seafront kiosks on summer nights. Verona's is busiest in Piazza delle Erbe and in Veronetta's student bars, and it gets a late burst when the opera crowd leaves the Arena near midnight.

Both cities have good country close by, of different kinds. Trieste's outdoors starts at the edge of town: the Strada Napoleonica above the gulf, the Rilke Path along the Duino cliffs, climbing in Val Rosandra, the Grotta Gigante, and sailing or snorkelling in the gulf itself.

Verona's landscape is softer and needs more travel. Vineyard walks and cycling in Valpolicella are close, while Monte Baldo's ridges, Garda's windsurfing and the Lessinia's beech woods take about an hour to reach.

Verona is the better base. Its rail line puts Vicenza under half an hour away, Padua and Mantua under an hour, and Venice close enough for a full, unrushed day, while the Garda towns and Soave's walls are nearer still.

Trieste offers plenty too, with a more cross-border character: Aquileia's mosaics, star-shaped Palmanova, Piran across the Slovenian border and Ljubljana or Postojna a little further. Venice is a long day from here, though, and much of the rest goes more easily by car.

Verona does more for children, mostly through what lies around it. Gardaland, the water parks along Garda's southern shore and the drive-through safari at Parco Natura Viva make easy days out, and the flat, car-free centre is easy with a pushchair.

Trieste is calm and safe but asks more of families. The Grotta Gigante, the aquarium, the science centre and the Miramare gardens please older children, while the rocky swimming and long flights of steps make it harder with toddlers.

Both centres are flat and easy to walk, and neither has a metro. Trieste's catch is the steep climb to San Giusto, offset by buses up onto the Karst and boats across the bay to Muggia. Verona's river loop is closed to most traffic, and for anything further out the trains to Peschiera and Venice do more work than the city buses.

Verona is the better shopping city, though still a modest one. Via Mazzini's marble street of Italian fashion labels and the boutiques along Corso Porta Borsari give it a smart provincial feel, and Amarone and Garda olive oil make good things to take home.

Trieste has little beyond ordinary chain clothing on Corso Italia. What it does offer is antique and second-hand shops in the old town lanes, plus roasted coffee and presnitz to take home.

Trieste goes further on the same budget. Buffet lunches and coffee at the counter are cheap, rooms are reasonable for most of the year, and the waterfront, the cathedral hill and swimming at Barcola are free.

Verona's food and wine are fairly priced, especially in Veronetta, but rooms in the historic centre are expensive. On summer opera nights and during the big trade fairs they become scarce, so staying near the station or across the river helps.

Verona has the bigger draw: summer opera in the Roman Arena, with huge productions of Verdi and Puccini on the ancient stone tiers. Shakespeare and jazz in the Roman theatre fill the warm months, and the Teatro Filarmonico carries on through winter.

Trieste's opera is more intimate and runs year-round at the waterfront Teatro Verdi. Its distinctive offering is operetta, a Habsburg taste rarely found elsewhere in Italy, and there is also Slovenian-language theatre.

For actual thermal bathing, Verona is better placed. Sirmione's sulphur springs, the spring-fed lake near Lazise and the Roman-era waters at Caldiero are all within easy reach.

Trieste has only hotel spas, so its restfulness comes from pace instead: long mornings in coffee houses, a sunset walk out along the Molo Audace and an unhurried, older population.