Aix-en-Provence or Siena?

Neither town is on the coast, but Aix-en-Provence is much closer to the water. Marseille's city beaches, the Cote Bleue and the calanques around Cassis are all within an hour, so a morning swim and an evening back in town is easy to manage. Expect small pebbly or rocky coves rather than long sands.

From Siena, the Maremma beaches near Castiglione della Pescaia are well over an hour's drive away, and the water there gets slightly warmer. A swim means giving up a whole day, so in practice most visitors use the agriturismo pool instead.

The two are evenly matched, and both cook mainly their own regional food with little from elsewhere. Aix eats around its morning markets on Place Richelme and long terrace lunches of tapenade, daube and chilled Coteaux d'Aix rose, with calissons as the sweet to take home.

Siena's cooking is heartier, with hand-rolled pici, ribollita, cinta senese pork and old bakeries selling panforte and ricciarelli. Its wine is the bigger draw: Chianti Classico, Brunello and Vino Nobile are grown close by and poured by the glass in enoteche. In both towns, the side streets serve better food than the grand terraces facing the main square.

Siena has the deeper sightseeing. Its whole medieval centre is a single preserved ensemble, from the shell-shaped Campo and the Palazzo Pubblico with Lorenzetti's Good and Bad Government to the striped Duomo, Duccio's Maesta and the Sienese school in the Pinacoteca. The seventeen contrade add a living layer of neighbourhood tradition.

Aix is more about elegance than masterpieces. Its pleasures are the plane-shaded Cours Mirabeau, the honey-stone mansions of the Mazarin quarter and its many fountains, along with the Cezanne trail of studio, family house and quarries and the Musee Granet. Both repay two or three days, but Siena's are the fuller days.

Neither is a place for serious clubbing, but Aix has a little more going on after dinner. Students and locals fill the bar terraces around the Forum des Cardeurs, and there are a few cocktail bars and small clubs, with Marseille half an hour away for a proper night out.

Siena's evenings come down to a long dinner, wine on the Campo and a stroll, and the centre goes quiet before midnight except in Palio season.

Aix has the more varied outdoors. Montagne Sainte-Victoire rises at the edge of town for summit hikes, the Calanques offer cliff walks and sea kayaking within an hour, and the Gorges du Verdon adds a true canyon. The catch is that summer fire-risk closures can shut the massifs on the hottest days.

Siena's countryside is gentler and quieter: the bare clay hills of the Crete Senesi, the Val d'Orcia and the white strade bianche, which make it excellent for cycling. It has no coast or high ground to match Aix's, apart from Monte Amiata further off.

Both are superb bases, and Siena edges ahead on sheer density. Florence, San Gimignano, Volterra, the Chianti villages, Pienza, Montalcino and Montepulciano are all close, with abbeys such as Monte Oliveto Maggiore and roofless San Galgano in between.

Aix answers with Marseille half an hour away, Avignon about twenty minutes by TGV, and Roman Arles, Nimes and the Pont du Gard, plus Luberon villages such as Gordes and Roussillon and the port of Cassis. In both regions, the cities are easy by public transport but the villages need a car.

Aix is the easier of the two with children, mainly because the sea and the Calanques are close and the zoo at La Barben makes an easy outing. The flat, pedestrian centre with its fountains and ice cream also helps.

Siena's steep, stepped lanes are tiring with a pushchair, and there is nothing in town designed for children. Older children do enjoy climbing the Torre del Mangia and seeing the contrada drummers. Families in either town tend to do best in a country house with a pool.

Both are compact centres best seen on foot, and both need a hire car for the countryside. The difference is in the terrain. Aix's old town and Mazarin quarter are flat and easy, while Siena spreads over three ridges of steep climbs, with escalators up from the station in the valley.

Onward links differ too. Aix has the TGV, though the station is out on the plateau, and regular buses and trains to Marseille. Siena relies on buses to Florence because its regional trains are slow and infrequent.

Aix gives shoppers clearly more to work with. French fashion and shoe boutiques, delicatessens and homeware shops line the lanes around Rue d'Italie and Rue Fabrot, and the Allees Provencales add chains. The produce, textile and flower markets are a pleasure in themselves, and santons, olive wood and printed fabrics make good souvenirs.

Siena is more modest: some clothing and leather shops on Banchi di Sopra, majolica ceramics, contrada scarves and the weekly market by the Fortezza. Its best purchases are edible, such as panforte, pecorino and wine.

Neither is cheap, but Siena is a little kinder to the budget. Osteria lunches with house wine are good value, and staying in an agriturismo outside the walls cuts costs further, though the museum entry fees do add up.

Aix has few hotels in the old town, and most are boutique hotels or country houses that charge high rates, especially during the July festival. Back-street lunch menus and market picnics help, but the car most visitors hire adds to the bill.

Aix is clearly the stronger choice for live performance. In July its opera festival stages world-class productions in the courtyard of the Archbishop's Palace. Through the rest of the year, the Grand Theatre de Provence hosts touring orchestras and Ballet Preljocaj dances at the Pavillon Noir.

Siena's music life is serious for a small town but stays provincial. It centres on summer concerts from the Accademia Chigiana, performances by the Siena Jazz school and drama at the Teatro dei Rinnovati, and opera means a trip to Florence.

The two are close, but their thermal water works differently. In Aix the springs are part of the town itself: warm water runs through the mossy fountain on the Cours Mirabeau, and the Thermes Sextius spa stands on the site of the Roman baths.

Siena's hot springs are out in the countryside, in the travertine pools of Rapolano Terme, the steaming medieval bath at Bagno Vignoni and the free limestone pools of Bagni San Filippo. That makes a soak a pleasant half-day out rather than a stroll from the hotel.