Aix-en-Provence or Florence?

Neither is a beach destination, but from Aix the water is much easier to reach. The coves of the Cote Bleue, Cassis and the calanques are all within about an hour by car, so a swim makes a realistic half-day out. The beaches are small, pebbly or rocky, though, and crowded in August.

From Florence the sea takes a full day. The sandy Versilia coast, lined with rented loungers, is about an hour and a half away by train. Most visitors settle for a hotel pool or one of the city's outdoor pools instead.

Aix eats well in the Provencal way. There are morning markets on Place Richelme, long lunches of daube, tians and grilled fish with rosé from the Coteaux d'Aix, and calissons from old confiseries. Beyond French and Mediterranean cooking, though, the choice is narrow.

Florence has the deeper table. Bistecca, ribollita and lampredotto from street carts, two real food markets at San Lorenzo and Sant'Ambrogio, Chianti vineyards just south of the city and serious gelato make eating a reason to go. The best meals are in the trattorie of the Oltrarno, not at the set menus near the Duomo.

Aix is a town to admire as you stroll rather than to work through. You get the plane trees of the Cours Mirabeau, the honey-coloured mansions of the Mazarin quarter, fountains on almost every square, Cezanne's studio at Les Lauves and the Musee Granet. It makes a gentle two or three days.

Florence is on another scale entirely. The Uffizi, the Accademia's David, the Bargello, Brunelleschi's dome and the Pitti Palace are among the great collections and buildings of Europe. Smaller sights such as the Fra Angelico cells at San Marco, the Brancacci Chapel and the Medici Chapels are just as rewarding, and the city as a whole can fill a week. Book the big museums ahead.

Both are places for a drink outdoors rather than a big night out, and both wind down early. Evenings in Aix centre on the student bars of Place des Cardeurs and the lanes behind the town hall, and they go quieter in term breaks. For real clubbing, people go to Marseille.

Florence starts with aperitivo and moves on to wine bars. Crowds spill into Piazza Santo Spirito, locals gather around Sant'Ambrogio, and in summer bars open along the Arno. Its edge is a little more choice and a livelier summer outdoors, not dancing.

Aix has the more dramatic country close by. Montagne Sainte-Victoire rises just east of town, and the white cliffs and turquoise inlets of the Calanques are within an hour. The Verdon gorge, the Luberon and the Alpilles add canyon hiking, kayaking and cycling, though in midsummer the massifs often close on high fire-risk days.

Florence's surroundings are gentler and more cultivated. There are olive terraces at Fiesole and the cypress lanes of Chianti, with the Casentino forests and the Apuan Alps further out. It is lovely walking and cycling country, but less wild.

Both are superb bases, but Florence has more within reach. Aix has Marseille half an hour away, Avignon by TGV, and Arles, Nimes and the Pont du Gard for Roman heritage. The Luberon villages of Gordes and Roussillon are close too, but they really need a car.

From Florence, Siena, Pisa, Lucca and Bologna are all easy by bus or train. San Gimignano, Volterra and the Val d'Orcia towns add more beyond them, enough for a week of outings without repeating yourself, and much of it without a car.

Neither is built for children. In both, the main sights are aimed at adults and summer afternoons are very hot. Aix's pedestrian centre and fountains suit short outings, but families there tend to rely on a pool and drive out to the zoo at La Barben or to the coast.

Florence has more inside the city to win children over, such as climbing the dome, the secret passages of Palazzo Vecchio and the Museo Galileo. Narrow pavements and summer crowds make it harder going, though, and the Pinocchio park at Collodi is its one classic day out.

Once you leave the old town, the two part ways. Aix's centre is small and mostly pedestrian, with electric shuttles in the narrow lanes. Beyond it, though, the TGV station sits out on the plateau and needs a shuttle bus, and the Provencal countryside is thinly served. Most visitors hire a car and then struggle to park near the centre.

Florence keeps the whole trip simpler. The Duomo, the Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio and the Pitti Palace are all within about twenty minutes of each other on foot, and Santa Maria Novella station is right in the centre. Trams run to the airport. A car is a burden inside the restricted historic zone and only pays off for the hill towns.

Aix makes for pleasant browsing. There are fashion and shoe boutiques around Rue d'Italie, a produce market every morning and a flower market on market days, plus santons, olive-wood ware and Marseille soap to take home. It has no luxury street or department store.

Florence is a real shopping city, built on craft. It has leather workshops and the San Lorenzo stalls, goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio, gilders and restorers in the Oltrarno, and fashion houses on Via de' Tornabuoni. The leather needs a careful eye, though, because some of it is mass-produced.

Neither is cheap, and the money goes in different directions. In Aix most of it goes on where you sleep. Central hotels are few, much of what there is is boutique hotels and country houses, and July is especially dear. A hire car for the countryside adds more, while market picnics and back-street lunch menus help.

In Florence, rooms in the historic centre are just as dear from spring to autumn, and on top of that the museums and the Duomo climb all charge admission, which adds up over a few days. Lampredotto, market counters and walking everywhere keep daily spending down, and a winter visit or a room across the river saves the most.

Each has one great musical moment and a smaller year around it. In Aix it comes in July, when the opera festival fills the courtyard of the Archbishop's Palace. The rest of the year rests on the Grand Theatre de Provence and Ballet Preljocaj, which gives Aix the stronger contemporary dance.

Florence, where opera was more or less born, has the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with its own orchestra, plus the Maggio Musicale festival in spring, so its classical season runs longer. Much of what visitors see, though, is church concerts staged for tourists, and plays at the Pergola are almost always in Italian.

Aix is the more restful choice. The warm springs that led the Romans to found the town still feed the Thermes Sextius spa and the mossy fountain on the Cours Mirabeau. Outside July, its rhythm of markets, long lunches and quiet afternoons is restorative in itself.

Florence has little inside the walls beyond hotel spas, and its crowded centre is tiring in high season. Its bathing culture is a trip away, at Montecatini Terme or the open-air pools of Bagno Vignoni and Saturnia.