Bari or Taormina?

Taormina has the better swimming. The water at Mazzarò and the cove facing Isola Bella is clear and glassy, good for snorkelling, and a cable car takes you down from the town. The catch is size: these are narrow pebble strips, so for sand you go to Giardini Naxos or Letojanni.

Bari's Pane e Pomodoro is sandy and within walking distance of the centre, but it is a plain urban beach used by local families. The swimming worth the trip is a train ride south at Polignano a Mare and the coves around Monopoli, so a beach day from Bari is an outing rather than part of the daily routine.

Food is one of the main reasons to choose Bari, and here it comes out ahead. The street food is cheap and belongs to the city: focaccia barese, panzerotti and sgagliozze sold from kitchen windows, raw sea urchins at the fishermen's pier, and orecchiette rolled by hand in the old town lanes.

Taormina has the more refined top end and the more interesting wine, with Etna's Nerello Mascalese and Carricante on every list, plus the granita and brioche breakfast. But a small resort town has less depth, and the main street relies on tourist menus, so good everyday food takes more searching.

Bari gives you more to see over a day or two. The Basilica di San Nicola is a model of Apulian Romanesque and still a pilgrimage site, and the cathedral, the Norman-Swabian castle, the palazzi of the Murat quarter and the Pinacoteca fill out the list.

Taormina's culture rests mostly on one sight, the Greek theatre with Etna framed by its broken stage, which is more striking than anything in Bari. Beyond it are the Duomo and a few palazzi along Corso Umberto, and no major museum.

Bari is the clear choice for going out. Piazza Mercantile and Piazza Ferrarese fill with students and young locals, the bars in the Umbertino streets stay busy past midnight, and in summer the night moves to open-air venues along the coast.

In Taormina an evening means aperitivo in Piazza IX Aprile, a stroll along the Corso and a piano bar over the sea. The crowd is mostly couples and older visitors and there is no club scene, so it makes a pleasant evening rather than a night out.

Taormina is in another league for the outdoors. Etna is about an hour away, with lava flows, the Silvestri craters, guided trips towards the summit and skiing in winter, and the basalt Alcantara gorges are closer still. Footpaths climb from town to Castelmola and Monte Tauro, and the Isola Bella reserve is good for kayaking and diving.

Bari sits in flat olive country. The Alta Murgia plateau and the Grotte di Castellana are worth the trip, and the Valle d'Itria is easy cycling, but there are no mountains nearby and the outdoors is gentle rather than dramatic.

Both make excellent bases, but Bari's choice is wider and closer. Matera's cave city, the trulli of Alberobello, Ostuni and the Valle d'Itria towns, Castel del Monte, Trani's cathedral on the sea and baroque Lecce add up to a run of varied, first-rate days, several of them by train.

Taormina's best outings take longer days. Syracuse and Ortigia are about two hours away, Noto needs an early start and Catania is an hour off. Its nearer trips, to the hill villages of Savoca and Forza d'Agrò or the wine villages on Etna, are on a smaller scale.

Bari is easier with young children. It has a sandy city beach and a flat, traffic-free old town, and the Grotte di Castellana and the Fasano safari park make good outings.

Taormina's steps, steep lanes, pebbly coves and hotels aimed at couples make it harder going with small children, though school-age children will remember Etna's craters and snorkelling at Isola Bella. Families there often stay down in Giardini Naxos instead.

Bari is flat, and its old town, shopping streets and seafront lie side by side. A rail link runs to the airport, and regional lines run along the coast and inland, though some of them are slow.

Taormina's centre is just as compact but built on a slope, so every outing involves stairs, and the beach is a cable car ride below. Etna and the inland villages need a tour or a hire car, and driving in the town itself is hard.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and the difference is in the kind of shopping. Bari's Via Sparano has Italian fashion chains for everyday buys, and the best things to take home are edible: dried orecchiette, taralli and olive oil.

Taormina's Corso Umberto is a single street of jewellers, coral and cameo dealers, lace shops and Sicilian ceramics such as the moor's-head vases. It is nicer to browse but aimed squarely at visitors.

Bari gives you far more for your money. Street food, trattoria lunches and local wine are cheap, the old town and the basilica cost nothing to explore, and rooms only get scarce in July and August.

Taormina is the most expensive base in eastern Sicily, with grand hotels setting the tone and resort prices on the main street. Granita and bakery snacks stay cheap, and staying in Giardini Naxos or Letojanni lowers the bill, but it never comes close to Bari.

Bari has a proper season at the Teatro Petruzzelli, one of Italy's largest opera houses, with opera, ballet and symphonic concerts. A summer jazz festival also uses the piazzas and the castle.

Taormina has the more unforgettable setting: concerts, opera and big-name acts in the Greek theatre, with Etna behind the stage. That is a summer affair, though, and for the rest of the year serious performances mean a trip to Catania.

Taormina is the better place to slow down. Its large hotels have proper spas, often with terrace pools above the sea and treatments using volcanic mud and citrus, and the Villa Comunale gardens offer shade. The calm belongs to May, June and late September, not August.

Bari has no spa culture beyond hotel facilities. Its restful side is the long lunch and the evening walk along the seafront, and real pampering means booking a country estate outside the city.