Assisi or La Spezia?

Assisi is a landlocked hill town. Its only swimming is the shallow, slightly murky water of Lake Trasimeno, a drive away, or a pool at your hotel or agriturismo.

La Spezia has no beach in town either, but it is far better placed. There is sand and pebble at Lerici and San Terenzo, clear rocky water around Portovenere and Palmaria, and Monterosso's long sandy beach is a short train ride away, so a swim makes an easy morning out from June into autumn.

Assisi's cooking is rural Umbrian: strangozzi with black truffle, Castelluccio lentils, olive oil from Monte Subasio and Sagrantino from Montefalco. The catch is that restaurants near the basilica lean on set menus for tour groups, so a good meal means looking for trattorias in the side lanes or agriturismi down in the valley.

La Spezia makes it easier to eat well every day. There is farinata from wood ovens, mussels from the gulf, pesto on trofie and testaroli, and the covered market on Piazza Cavour, with steadier quality than in the Cinque Terre villages and Cinque Terre whites to drink.

Here Assisi is in a different league. The Basilica of San Francesco, with frescoes by Cimabue, Simone Martini and the Giotto cycle of Saint Francis, is one of Europe's great monuments. The Temple of Minerva, Santa Chiara and the Rocca make the whole town a UNESCO site.

La Spezia is a nineteenth-century naval city of arcaded streets and Liberty facades. Its best sights are the early Italian paintings of the Museo Amedeo Lia and the Lunigiana stele statues in Castello San Giorgio. Together they fill a day or two, but the region's history lies out along the coast rather than in the town.

Neither is a place for late nights, but La Spezia at least has an evening. Aperitivo along Via del Prione and around Piazza Verdi, and in summer at the waterfront bars of Lerici and San Terenzo, make for a sociable couple of hours before the town winds down. In Assisi the evening is a glass of Sagrantino and a walk through floodlit, empty lanes, and anyone wanting bars has to stay in Perugia.

Assisi has good walking right behind the town. A path climbs Monte Subasio through holm-oak woods to the Eremo delle Carceri and on to open summit meadows, and the flat valley is good for cycling between Spello and Montefalco. It is gentle, green country, at its best in autumn.

La Spezia's scenery is the more dramatic. The Cinque Terre paths cross terraced cliffs above the sea, Palmaria and Montemarcello are close by, and you can kayak or dive in the gulf. About an hour inland, the jagged marble peaks of the Apuan Alps offer serious hiking.

Both are superb bases, and the difference lies in where the outings take you. From Assisi they are Umbrian hill towns: Spello, Perugia, Spoleto, Gubbio, Todi and Orvieto's cathedral, with the Tuscan border towns beyond. A car makes the smaller ones much easier.

From La Spezia the days out are by the sea. The Cinque Terre villages are minutes away by train, Portovenere is a short boat ride, and Lerici and Tellaro sit across the gulf. Pisa and Lucca are about an hour away, and none of it needs a car.

Assisi is safe and welcoming, but its steep, stepped lanes and silent frescoed churches offer children little, so families usually do better at a valley agriturismo with a pool. La Spezia works better, with a flat centre and seafront gardens that are easy with a pushchair, boat trips round Portovenere and shallow, sheltered beaches at San Terenzo and Lerici. Neither has a zoo or theme park, and the steep Cinque Terre villages suit older children more than toddlers.

Assisi's centre is small but steep, with stairs between the basilica and Piazza del Comune. The station lies 4km below in Santa Maria degli Angeli, and beyond the valley rail line most visitors end up hiring a car.

La Spezia is the easier place to be without one. Its flat centre is easy to walk, and trains, buses and seasonal ferries reach the Cinque Terre, Portovenere and Lerici, although the coastal trains get crowded in summer.

Neither is a shopping destination. In Assisi the streets are mostly given over to rosaries and Franciscan souvenirs, and the things worth carrying home are embroidered Umbrian linen, Deruta ceramics and truffle products. La Spezia has a bit more range, with the ordinary high street of a provincial city on Via del Prione and Corso Cavour, a produce market, and edible souvenirs such as pesto and Sciacchetrà.

Assisi is a little easier on the budget. Its basilicas are free to enter, convent guesthouses offer simple rooms at low cost, and agriturismi in the valley are good value, as long as you eat away from the streets nearest the basilica. Rooms inside the walls cost more around Easter and the big feast days.

La Spezia is cheaper than staying in the Cinque Terre villages, with inexpensive trains and fair everyday food. In summer, though, rooms, trail passes, boat trips and paid bathing establishments add up, and spring and autumn are noticeably easier on the wallet.

Neither town is a place to plan your evenings around, and Assisi has the less to go to. Its music follows the church calendar, with sacred concerts in the basilicas around the feasts. The one big civic occasion is Calendimaggio in spring, when the town turns out in medieval costume. For opera or Umbria's famous summer jazz festival, you go to Perugia.

La Spezia gives you a little more. The Teatro Civico runs a regular season of theatre and concerts, and in summer there is a long-running jazz festival and open-air music in piazzas and castle courtyards around the gulf. Opera still means a train to Genoa or Pisa.

Assisi is the easier place to slow down. Its few spas are in country hotels and agriturismi on the valley floor, so a restful stay usually means booking one of those among the olive groves and coming up into town in the early morning or evening, when it is at its stillest. Long, unhurried Umbrian lunches do the rest, even though nobody is offering treatments.

La Spezia has no spa scene of its own, and its nearest thermal water is the small baths at Equi Terme, about an hour inland in the Lunigiana valley. Here the restful moments come from the sea instead: an off-season evening on the seafront, or a slow lunch in Lerici or Tellaro.