Turin or Zurich?

Neither city has a beach, but only Zurich lets you swim in town. Its lake lidos and wooden bathing houses at Utoquai and Mythenquai, and the Letten river baths on the Limmat, make an afternoon dip easy in summer, from grass and decks rather than sand.

Turin has nothing like this within the city. Locals head out to lakes such as Avigliana or Viverone, and the Ligurian coast is well over an hour and a half away, so sea swimming means a separate trip.

Turin is the better place to eat, by some distance. Agnolotti del plin and vitello tonnato, Barolo and Barbaresco on the lists, white truffles in autumn and the vermouth aperitivo that began here give its meals real depth, and Porta Palazzo is one of Europe's largest open-air markets.

Zurich cooks well but carefully: veal Geschnetzeltes with rösti, fondue in guild-house dining rooms, and international places around Langstrasse. Both are strong on chocolate, gianduiotti against Luxemburgerli, and neither does much street food, but in Zurich every meal costs far more.

Turin has much more to see. The Museo Egizio alone justifies a visit, and around it are the Royal Palace, Palazzo Madama, the cathedral of the Shroud, the UNESCO-listed Savoy residences and the cinema museum in the Mole, enough sightseeing for a week.

Zurich is more compact. It has the Kunsthaus collection, the Swiss National Museum, Chagall's windows in the Fraumünster and the Grossmünster, where the Swiss Reformation began. It is well kept and rewarding, but the essentials fit into two or three days.

Zurich goes out later and louder. Clubs in Kreis 4 and 5 and in Zurich West run until morning at weekends, electronic music sits at the heart of the scene, and every August the Street Parade turns the lake shore into a huge techno gathering. Drinks are so expensive, though, that nights tend to end earlier.

Turin's evenings start with the aperitivo and move on to the bar streets of the Quadrilatero Romano, San Salvario and Vanchiglia, or to the Murazzi by the Po in summer. It is a sociable city of bars rather than a clubbing one.

Both have the Alps within about an hour, so the difference lies in the setting. Turin's mountains are the Susa valley, Gran Paradiso with its ibex and the slopes around Sestriere. The city itself sits on a flat plain, with the Superga hills and Valentino park as its green edges.

Zurich has its lake on the doorstep, with shoreline paths, boats to the villages and the Uetliberg ridge a short train ride away, plus Rigi, Pilatus and Flumserberg for bigger days. From Zurich the trains take you into the mountains, while Turin's valleys are often easier to reach with a car.

Both make excellent bases, but the days out are different in kind. From Turin they lean towards food and wine: Alba and Barolo in the Langhe, Asti and the Monferrato, with Milan an hour away by fast train and Genoa or Aosta about two.

From Zurich, rail takes you easily to Swiss towns and scenery: Lucerne in under an hour, Bern, Basel and the abbey library at St Gallen, and the Rhine Falls paired with Stein am Rhein. Zurich's trips rarely need a car, while the Piedmont wine villages are simpler with one.

Zurich is the easier city with children. The zoo with its Madagascar rainforest hall and elephant park, the shallow lake lidos and the Technorama in Winterthur give plenty of choice, and buggy-friendly public transport gets you to all of them.

Turin has its own strengths: flat arcaded streets, the glass lift up through the Mole, the car museum and the mummies of the Museo Egizio. But it has no zoo or aquarium in town, its main family outing, Zoom Torino, needs a car, and its summer heat is harder on small children.

Zurich is about as easy as cities get. Trams, S-Bahn trains, funiculars and lake boats share one integrated ticket, and the airport is a short train ride away. Turin's flat, arcaded grid is a pleasure to walk from Porta Nuova to the Po, but beyond that its single metro line and slower trams and buses take more effort to work out.

Zurich is the better choice for luxury. Bahnhofstrasse runs from the station to the lake past watchmakers, jewellers and department stores, and watches are the thing to buy. Turin has big labels under the Via Roma arcades, but its list of high fashion is short.

Turin's own strength is food and curios: chocolate makers, truffle delicatessens, the antique dealers of Via Maria Vittoria and the Saturday Balon flea market. In Zurich, the design shops in the viaduct arches are the closest equivalent, and everything there costs more.

Turin is far easier on the wallet. Hotels are fairly priced outside the big trade-fair weeks, aperitivo and market food stretch a budget, and only fine dining and the truffle season push costs up.

Zurich is one of the most expensive cities in the world, from a simple room to a casual lunch. Supermarket picnics by the lake, the free lidos and the visitor card help a little, but a stay there costs far more than in Turin.

Both take the stage seriously, and there is little between them. Zurich's Opernhaus on the lake shore is one of Europe's most respected opera houses, backed by the Tonhalle Orchestra, the Schauspielhaus and the Rote Fabrik for jazz, indie and electronic acts.

Turin answers with the Teatro Regio's modernist hall, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra and concerts in Renzo Piano's Lingotto auditorium, plus jazz clubs in the centre. In both cities the theatre is mostly in the local language, Italian in one and German in the other.

Zurich has more places to unwind in the water. The thermal pools in the vaults of the old Hürlimann brewery have a rooftop pool, the lake and Limmat bathing houses become saunas in the colder months, and Baden's hot springs are twenty minutes away by train.

Turin has hotel spas and little else, and its nearest thermal waters, at Acqui Terme or in the Aosta valley, are close to two hours away. Its calm comes instead from long breaks in historic cafés, the arcades and evening walks by the Po.