Antibes or Florence?

This is where the two cities differ most. Antibes has sandy, gently shelving beaches at Juan-les-Pins and La Salis, and rocky coves and flat swimming rocks around Cap d'Antibes, all a few minutes from your room. The catch is that private clubs take much of the sand, and the free stretches fill early in high summer.

Florence is inland, so swimming means a hotel pool, a public outdoor pool or a full day out to the Versilia coast near Viareggio. If the sea is part of the plan, Antibes is the only real option of the two.

Florence is the better place to eat. Its cooking has a strong identity, from bistecca and ribollita to lampredotto sold from street carts. The Mercato Centrale and Sant'Ambrogio markets show what the city eats every day, the Chianti vineyards start just south of town, and the best meals are in the trattorie of the Oltrarno.

Antibes eats well in a narrower, Niçoise style: socca, pissaladière, stuffed vegetables and grilled fish with rosé, built around the covered market on Cours Masséna. Both have tourist menus near the main sights, but Antibes has less depth beyond them.

The gap here is wide. Florence holds the heart of the Renaissance in a compact centre: the Duomo under Brunelleschi's dome, the Uffizi, David at the Accademia, the Bargello and the Pitti Palace. San Marco, the Medici Chapels and Santa Croce come on top of those, and the whole can fill a week.

Antibes has one sight of real weight, the Picasso Museum in the Château Grimaldi. Around it are an old town with sea ramparts, Fort Carré and the villas of the cape. That makes two good days alongside the beach, but not a reason to make the trip.

Neither is a big night out, but the evenings feel different. Antibes is seasonal. In July and August, Juan-les-Pins has beach bars and a few clubs open until the early hours, and the lanes by Port Vauban have pubs full of yacht crews. Out of season, much of it closes.

Florence runs all year on aperitivo and wine bars, with drinkers spilling across Piazza Santo Spirito in the Oltrarno and a more local crowd at Sant'Ambrogio. It is better for a long dinner and a late glass, and worse for dancing.

Antibes has the edge outdoors, mostly because of the sea. The path around Cap d'Antibes, snorkelling and diving in clear water, sailing and paddleboarding fill active days, and the red cliffs of the Esterel and the gorges above Grasse are within reach.

Florence's countryside is gentler and cultivated: olive terraces at Fiesole, cycling and walking among the Chianti vineyards, and the Casentino forests further out. It is lovely walking country in spring and autumn, but there is nothing to do on the water.

Both make excellent bases, but Florence has the deeper list. Siena, Pisa, Lucca and Bologna are an easy train or bus ride away. With a car, San Gimignano, Volterra, the Chianti villages and the Val d'Orcia can fill a week, and each is worth a trip in its own right.

Antibes works along a single coastline. Nice and Cannes are minutes away by train, with Monaco and Menton further on, the Lérins Islands by boat, and Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Eze and Grasse inland. It is a fine mix of seaside towns and art villages, but less varied than Tuscany.

Antibes is the easier choice for families, mainly because its sandy, gently shelving beaches suit small children far better than a city of churches. The town is small and easy to manage, though beyond the beach, the boats and Fort Carré there is little made for children.

Florence takes more effort, with hot summers, narrow pavements, crowds and sights made for adults. Climbing the dome, the family tours of Palazzo Vecchio, the Museo Galileo and the Boboli Gardens help, and the Pinocchio park at Collodi is an hour away.

Florence is easier to get around. The main sights are all within about twenty minutes' walk of each other, buses climb to Fiesole and Piazzale Michelangelo, and Santa Maria Novella station sits in the centre for day trips. The historic centre is closed to most traffic, so a car only helps for the hill towns.

Antibes is walkable at its core, and the coastal railway makes Nice, Cannes and Monaco simple. The cape, the hill villages and the Esterel depend on slow buses or a car, though, and summer traffic and parking on the coast road are hard going.

Florence is a real shopping city, built on craft. There is leather from market stalls and workshops, marbled paper, goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio, gilders and framers in the Oltrarno, and the fashion houses of Via de' Tornabuoni.

Antibes is small-scale, with the covered market for olive oil, herbs and soap and a few boutiques selling Provençal linen and ceramics. Its best buys, Biot glass and Vallauris pottery, are found in the nearby villages, and for fashion people go to Cannes or Nice.

In Antibes the money goes on the summer seaside: rooms near the sand at Juan-les-Pins and on the cape, beach-club loungers and terraces facing the water. Rates fall sharply in spring and autumn, when the sea is still warm enough to swim, and picnics from the covered market keep daily costs down.

Florence charges more for the sights themselves. Central hotels are dear for much of the year, and the admission fees for the Uffizi, the Accademia and the Duomo climb mount up over a few days. Lampredotto, market counters and house wine are fairly priced, though, and walking everywhere costs nothing.

Florence has the stronger programme. Opera, concerts and ballet run through the season at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and there is the spring Maggio Musicale festival and theatre at the Pergola. Many of the evening concerts visitors find, though, are short programmes in churches put on for tourists.

Antibes has one big event, Jazz à Juan, one of Europe's oldest jazz festivals, held each July under the pines by the sea at Juan-les-Pins. For a jazz fan in July it is a reason to come. The rest of the year depends on the Anthéa theatre, or on Nice.

Antibes looks to the sea for its spa treatments, while Florence's bathing culture lies in thermal towns beyond the city. On the Riviera that means a seawater thalassotherapy centre and the spas of the grand hotels on Cap d'Antibes. The town is calmest in May, June and September, with slow market mornings and evening walks on the ramparts, and least restful in the crowds of July and August.

From Florence, Montecatini Terme is under an hour by train, and the open-air sulphur pools at Bagno Vignoni and Saturnia make a longer outing or an overnight stay. Inside the city the spa choice is thin, and the Boboli and Bardini gardens are the quiet corners away from the crowds.