Assisi or Catania?

These two are about as far apart as Italian destinations get on swimming. Assisi sits in the hills about two hours from either coast, and the nearest water is Lake Trasimeno, whose small lidos are warm but shallow and slightly murky; otherwise a pool at an agriturismo has to do.

Catania has the sea on its doorstep and two kinds of shore. La Playa gives a long, easy, crowded stretch of sand with beach clubs, while the black lava coast at Aci Castello and Aci Trezza means swimming off ladders into very clear water beside the sea stacks.

Catania is the stronger eating city by some way. Its cooking happens on the street and at the counter: cone-shaped arancini, fried crispelle, granita with brioche for breakfast, smoky grills on Via Plebiscito and the morning's catch cooked around La Pescheria. Etna's volcanic wines add real interest.

Assisi eats well but narrowly, with rural Umbrian dishes such as strangozzi with black truffle, Castelluccio lentils and torta al testo, plus Subasio olive oil and Montefalco's Sagrantino. The catch is that many tables near the basilica serve set menus to groups, so the good meals take some seeking out on side lanes or in the valley.

Assisi has the edge, because it holds one of Europe's supreme works of art. The two stacked churches of the Basilica of San Francesco, with frescoes by Cimabue, Simone Martini, Lorenzetti and the Saint Francis cycle given to Giotto, outweigh anything single in Catania. Add the Temple of Minerva, Santa Chiara and the Porziuncola, and two days are well filled.

Catania's appeal is more of a whole townscape: a late-baroque city of black lava and pale limestone, rebuilt after 1693, with Via dei Crociferi, the vast Benedictine monastery and Roman remains showing through. Its museums are modest, so it rewards walking more than looking at paintings.

Catania goes out; Assisi goes to bed. In Catania a large student population keeps the lanes around Piazza Bellini and Via Gemmellaro full of drinkers until well past midnight, and in summer the beach clubs at La Playa become open-air dance floors, though serious clubbing is thin.

Assisi offers a glass of Sagrantino and a walk through deserted lanes, and anyone wanting more has to make the half-hour trip to Perugia.

Catania has the bigger landscape by far. Etna rises to about 3,300m, often smoking, with a cable car from the Rifugio Sapienza, walks across recent lava flows and old craters, and even small winter ski areas. The Alcantara Gorge, the Nebrodi forests and snorkelling or kayaking among the sea stacks add variety.

Assisi's outdoors is gentler and closer to hand: Monte Subasio climbs straight from the town through holm-oak woods to grassy summit meadows, with wildflowers in spring. The valley below is good for cycling between Spello, Bevagna and Montefalco, and the Sibillini make a longer drive.

Both are excellent bases, so the choice is about what you want to see. From Assisi the excursions are Umbrian hill towns, close together and often reachable by regional train: Spello, Perugia, Spoleto, then Gubbio, Todi, Orvieto's cathedral and the Tuscan border towns of Cortona and Montepulciano.

From Catania the range is wider in era: the Greek theatres of Siracusa and Taormina, the baroque showpieces of Noto, Modica and Ragusa Ibla, and the Roman mosaics of Piazza Armerina. The distances are longer, though, and in both places a car makes the smaller towns much easier.

Catania is the easier pick with children, mainly because of what lies outside the city. La Playa's sand shelves gently, a walk on Etna's old craters thrills older children, and the Etnaland theme and water park fills a hot day. The city itself is harder work, with heavy traffic, narrow pavements and little shade.

Assisi is safe and calm, but its sights are churches that need silence and its stepped streets defeat pushchairs. Beyond the Rocca Maggiore and a walk on Subasio, families usually do best staying at a valley agriturismo with a pool and visiting town in short bursts.

Assisi is slightly easier to manage. The walled town can be crossed on foot in twenty minutes, cars are kept out, and regional trains run along the valley to Perugia, Spello and Spoleto. The price is steepness, with stairs and slopes everywhere, and the station lies about 4km below, so a bus or taxi is needed.

Catania's centre along Via Etnea and around Piazza del Duomo is flat enough and walkable, but beyond it things get tiring: one metro line, slow buses in heavy traffic and drivers who do not always stop for pedestrians. Parking a hire car in the centre is a struggle.

Catania offers more to browse, though neither is a shopping destination. Via Etnea is a long run of Italian chains and fashion stores, and the daily La Fiera market around Piazza Carlo Alberto is loud and lively, while Bronte pistachio creams, Etna wines and Caltagirone ceramics make good things to take home.

Assisi's streets are given over mostly to rosaries and Tau crosses. In among them are worthwhile Umbrian linens with Assisi embroidery, Deruta ceramics, olive oil and truffle products, but there is no fashion or market scene at all.

The two cost much the same, and the savings come in different places. In Assisi the basilicas are free to enter and convent guesthouses offer simple rooms cheaply, while prices inside the walls climb around Easter and the main feasts.

Catania's bargain is food: street food makes a full meal for little, and buses are inexpensive. Summer rooms, beach-club sunbeds and guided trips to Etna's summit craters are where the costs build up, and in both places a hire car adds noticeably to the budget.

Catania is clearly ahead. As Bellini's birthplace it has the Teatro Massimo Bellini, a grand nineteenth-century opera house with a real opera and symphonic season, and the Sicilian puppet theatre of knights and Saracens is still performed. In summer, concerts move into courtyards and ancient theatres.

Assisi's music is sacred and occasional: organ recitals and choirs in the basilica, and the medieval costume and song of Calendimaggio in spring. For opera or the summer jazz festival, visitors head to Perugia.

Neither city is a spa destination, but Assisi is the more restful place. Its calm comes from the town itself: still early mornings, convent retreats, silent walks up to the Eremo delle Carceri, with a few spas in valley hotels.

Catania is noisy and full of traffic, and its spas are mostly in coastal resorts or on Etna's lower slopes. What helps there is the pace of the day, with long lunches and an evening passeggiata, and the volcano's quieter villages make a calmer base.