Turin or Venice?

Turin has no sea at all. The Ligurian Riviera is close to two hours away, so summer swimming here means lakes such as Avigliana or Lago Maggiore.

Venice has a real beach a short vaporetto ride from San Marco. The Lido has kilometres of fine sand and shallow, warm Adriatic water that suits children, though the sea is greenish and much of the shore is set out in private cabanas. It is a hot afternoon's escape rather than a beach vacation, but Turin has nothing to set against it.

Turin is the better place to eat. Piedmontese cooking such as agnolotti del plin, vitello tonnato and autumn white truffles comes with Barolo and Barbaresco on the list, and the city that invented vermouth and the aperitivo still treats both seriously. Gianduja, bicerin in the arcade cafés and the huge Porta Palazzo market round it out.

Venice has one great way of eating: cicchetti and a glass of wine standing at a bacaro counter near the Rialto or in Cannaregio, with lagoon dishes like black cuttlefish risotto. The trouble is the many tired picture-menu restaurants on the main routes, so good meals in Venice take more searching than in Turin.

Venice is in a class of its own here, because the setting is the sight. San Marco, the Doge's Palace and the Grand Canal's palazzi come with no cars and almost nothing modern in view, and the art goes on through the Accademia, the Frari, the Scuola Grande di San Rocco and the Biennale.

Turin is rich in a different way. It is a stately former royal capital with the Museo Egizio, the Royal Palace, the Shroud, the Savoy residences and an industrial story told at the Lingotto and the car museum. It rewards a few days well, but Venice is the one that fills a week.

Turin keeps going later. After the aperitivo, people move on to wine bars in the Quadrilatero Romano, student crowds on the San Salvario pavements and the riverside Murazzi in summer, and there are clubs in old industrial spaces.

Venice has a lively hour at the bacari and along the Fondamenta della Misericordia, a few late bars around Campo Santa Margherita, and then near silence. That quiet makes a lovely late walk, but anyone wanting a proper night out is better off in Turin.

Turin has the Alps on its horizon and within reach. The Gran Paradiso with its ibex, the Susa valley and the Sestriere ski slopes are about an hour or so away, and closer in there are the hill paths to Superga and the deer forest of the Mandria.

Venice's outdoors is the lagoon: salt marshes around Torcello with herons and flamingos, kayaking, standing Venetian rowing and cycling along the Pellestrina sea walls. It is gentle and flat, and for real mountains you are looking at well over two hours each way.

Both are excellent bases, and they differ mainly in the kind of day out. From Turin the draw is the countryside: the Langhe wine villages, Alba's truffles, the Sacra di San Michele on its rock, with Milan an hour off by fast train.

From Venice it is art cities on a quick rail line, with Padua in half an hour, then Vicenza and Verona, and the Brenta villas. The lagoon adds Murano, Burano and Torcello without any train at all.

Turin is the easier city with children. The flat grid and long arcades make pushchairs simple and keep off rain and sun, and the glass lift up through the Mole, the car museum and Valentino park all work well. The Zoom zoo park is a drive away.

Venice thrills children with boats, car-free alleys, Murano glass-blowing and the shallow Lido beach. Day to day, though, hundreds of stepped bridges, packed summer routes and a shortage of parks and playgrounds make it tiring, so it suits short stays with older children.

Both are cities you walk, but the walking feels very different. Turin's centre is a flat, regular grid under arcades, backed by one driverless metro line and trams that take some learning.

In Venice there are no cars, so you go on foot through twisting alleys that dead-end at canals, or by slow, crowded vaporetto. The stepped bridges make luggage and wheelchairs hard work in a way Turin never does.

Neither is a serious fashion destination, and what is worth buying differs. Turin's best shopping is edible: chocolate, pastries, truffles and Piedmontese wine, plus the antique dealers of Via Maria Vittoria and the Balon flea market.

Venice is about old crafts: Murano glass, Burano lace, papier-mâché masks, marbled paper and furlane slippers. On the main routes, though, much of it is cheap imports, so look for workshops where the work is done on site.

Turin is far kinder to the wallet. Central hotels are fairly priced most of the year, a generous aperitivo can replace dinner and the centre is walkable, so costs climb mainly with fine dining and truffle season.

Venice is among Italy's most expensive stays. Rooms, water transport, church entries and table service on the piazza all cost heavily. Cicchetti at the counter, rooms in the quieter sestieri or at Mestre, and a winter visit help, but even then it rarely matches Turin.

Both have a full opera season at a fine house, and the difference is in the rest of the programme. In Turin it is the Teatro Regio, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Renzo Piano's Lingotto auditorium, and jazz clubs and festivals around the centre.

Venice has the historic La Fenice, where Verdi and Rossini premiered works, and Vivaldi played in churches and scuole most evenings, uneven in quality but special in his own city. Jazz and independent music are thin compared with Turin.

Neither has a bathing culture of its own, and both rely on hotel spas. The calm they offer is of different kinds. Turin's comes from long coffee breaks in historic cafés and walks along the Po, and its thermal baths at Acqui Terme or in the Aosta valley are close to two hours away.

Venice has traffic-free silence in Castello, Cannaregio and on Giudecca, though the daytime crowds near San Marco work against it. Real thermal pools are nearer too, at Abano Terme, about an hour away.