Antibes or Lucca?

In Antibes the sea is part of the town. Juan-les-Pins and La Salis have sandy, gently shelving beaches, and around Cap d'Antibes there are rocky coves and flat rocks for swimming in very clear water. Private clubs take much of the sand at Juan-les-Pins, and the free stretches fill early in high summer.

Lucca is inland, so a swim means the train to Viareggio and the long Versilia beaches. They are also sandy and gently shelving, but mostly laid out in rows of club umbrellas, with the pine-backed dunes of the Lecciona if you want something wilder. It works as an afternoon after sightseeing, not as a beach stay.

Lucca has the more distinctive food. Family trattorias inside the walls serve its plain provincial cooking at fair prices: farro soup, tordelli lucchesi, chestnut dishes and buccellato, with local olive oil and Montecarlo wines alongside. The drawback is that menus start to repeat after a few days.

Antibes eats Niçoise: socca, pissaladière, grilled fish and rosé, and the market on Cours Masséna is its best feature. There is fine dining on the Cap, but the streets near the port lean on tourist menus, so eating well takes more care.

In Lucca the walled medieval city is itself the main sight. The Renaissance walls survive all the way round, and inside are the carved Romanesque fronts of San Michele and San Frediano, the cathedral with Ilaria del Carretto's tomb, and the oval Piazza dell'Anfiteatro, built into a Roman arena.

Antibes has one standout, the Picasso Museum in the Château Grimaldi, as well as the star-shaped Fort Carré and a pleasant tangle of old-town lanes. Each town fills about two days, but Lucca's two days are far richer.

Neither town is a nightlife destination, but Antibes has more going on in summer. In July and August, Juan-les-Pins keeps its beach bars and a few clubs open until the early hours, and yacht crews fill the pubs near Port Vauban. Out of season it goes quiet, and Nice is the fallback.

A Lucca evening means an aperitivo in Piazza San Michele, a long dinner and a stroll on the walls, and the centre is calm by midnight. For dancing you go to the Versilia beach clubs, which means a late drive or taxi back.

Both have good outdoors close by, but of different kinds. In Antibes it is mostly about the sea: the coastal path round the Cap over wind-carved limestone, snorkelling and diving in clear water, and sailing on the bay. For hiking there are the red Esterel cliffs and the pre-Alps above Grasse.

Lucca's outdoors is on land. There is the 4km ring of walls for cycling and running and paths along the Serchio, and the marble peaks of the Apuan Alps are about an hour north. The Garfagnana has chestnut woods, and Lake Massaciuccoli is good for birdwatching.

Both are excellent bases, and the real difference is what lies around them. From Antibes the coastal railway links Nice, Cannes, Monaco and Menton, while Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Eze and the boat to the Lérins Islands add variety.

From Lucca the train takes about half an hour to Pisa and a little over an hour to Florence. Pistoia, the Lucca villas, Pietrasanta and Carrara are closer still, and the Cinque Terre or San Gimignano are possible with an early start. The choice is between Riviera resorts and Tuscan art towns.

Families do about equally well, for different reasons. Antibes has sandy, gently shelving beaches that suit small children, which is rare on this coast. It has little else built for them, though, and August heat and crowds need planning around.

Lucca's pleasures are on land: riding the walls on a family quadricycle, climbing the tree-topped Torre Guinigi and visiting the Pinocchio Park at Collodi. The Versilia sand is under half an hour away.

Lucca is easier to get around. Inside the walls it is flat, compact and mostly closed to traffic, so you can walk or cycle everywhere, and the station by the southern walls has trains to Pisa, Florence and the coast.

The old town of Antibes is walkable too, Juan-les-Pins is a half-hour walk away and the coastal railway is handy. In summer, though, traffic and parking are a real problem. In both places, trips into the countryside are far simpler with a car.

In Antibes, shopping means the covered market and the old-town boutiques, good for Provençal linens, ceramics, olive oil and soaps. Anyone after fashion takes the train to Cannes or Nice.

Via Fillungo gives Lucca a proper shopping street, with fashion and jewellery behind old Liberty-style shopfronts, and the lanes around it add delis and paper shops. Once a month, one of Italy's oldest antiques markets fills the streets near the cathedral, which is reason enough to time a visit. Neither town is a place for luxury brands.

Antibes is the more expensive of the two by some way. In July and August, rooms near the sand at Juan-les-Pins and on Cap d'Antibes are priced like a luxury resort, and beach-club loungers and meals on seafront terraces push the bill up further. Hotel rates fall sharply in spring and autumn, when the sea is still warm enough to swim. At any time of year, the coastal trains are good value and food from the Cours Masséna market keeps self-catering cheap.

Lucca is the better value. A meal, a train ride or a museum ticket there generally costs less than the same thing on the Riviera, and its sights are modestly priced compared with Antibes' grand Cap and its beach clubs. Rooms take the biggest share of the budget, since the walls hold few hotels and these fill in summer and during the big festivals, so book early if you want to stay inside them.

Jazz à Juan is the big night in Antibes. It has been held each July since 1960, with concerts under the pines of the Pinède Gould a few steps from the sea. For the rest of the year there is the regional programme at the Anthéa theatre, and for opera you go to Nice.

Puccini was born in Lucca, and his music runs through its year: short aria recitals in a church in the centre, an opera season at the nineteenth-century Teatro del Giglio, and open-air opera by the lake at Torre del Lago in summer. Add the July concerts by international stars in Piazza Napoleone and the conservatory's student recitals, and Lucca offers far more live music in any season.

Neither town has baths of its own, but Lucca gives you more ways to unwind. Its traffic-free streets and evening walks on the walls set a slow pace, and the spa towns are easy days out: Montecatini Terme, the cave pools at Monsummano and the steam grottoes of Bagni di Lucca.

Antibes relies on a thalassotherapy centre and the spas of the grand hotels on the Cap. It is restful mainly in May, June and September, because crowds and traffic take over in high summer.