Bergamo or Catania?

Catania is a genuine seaside city, and Bergamo is not. Catania gives you a choice between the broad sand and beach clubs of La Playa and the platforms and ladders among the basalt stacks at Aci Trezza, with Isola Bella in Taormina an hour away if you want something prettier.

From Bergamo, swimming means a day out to Lake Iseo or the Lecco arm of Lake Como. The water is pleasant by July, but the shores are pebble, grass and concrete. That is fine for a hot afternoon, but no reason to choose the city.

Catania eats better, and much of the best of it is on the street: cone-shaped arancini, fried crispelle, smoky horse-meat grills on Via Plebiscito, and granita with brioche for breakfast. La Pescheria supplies the trattorias around it, and Etna's volcanic wines add real interest.

Bergamo's cooking is heavier and more rural, built on casoncelli, polenta, game and some of Italy's finest cheeses, such as Taleggio and Strachitunt, with Franciacorta sparkling wine nearby. It has the stronger fine-dining tier of the two. Catania is the place to graze cheaply, and Bergamo the place for a long sit-down meal.

Bergamo has the edge, mainly because the Città Alta is so complete: a hilltop town inside UNESCO-listed Venetian walls, with Santa Maria Maggiore and the marble front of the Cappella Colleoni around Piazza Vecchia. Below the hill, the Accademia Carrara holds Raphael, Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini, a stronger collection than anything in Catania.

Catania's appeal is a whole cityscape rather than great collections. Its late-baroque streets of black lava and pale limestone, Via dei Crociferi and the vast monastery of San Nicolò l'Arena are built over Roman ruins, and its museums are modest. If you come in early February, the Feast of Sant'Agata is one of the great religious processions in Italy.

Catania is far livelier after dark. Crowds drink outside the small bars around Piazza Bellini and Via Gemmellaro until long after midnight, and in summer the La Playa beach clubs turn into open-air dance floors.

Bergamo's evening is a long aperitivo followed by wine bars around Borgo Santa Caterina, or drinks on the walls in summer, and it is usually over by midnight. For more, people take the train to Milan.

Both cities have mountains on the doorstep, but Etna gives Catania the more dramatic outdoors. You can ride the cable car from the Rifugio Sapienza towards smoking summit craters, walk across recent lava flows, wade the Alcantara Gorge, or snorkel and kayak around the sea stacks.

Bergamo's version is greener and wider. Woodland paths climb straight from the upper town to San Vigilio, and Val Brembana and Val Seriana lead into the Orobie Alps, with rifugi and high lakes. There is sailing and cycling on the lakes, though the higher valleys are much easier with a car.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference is in how you travel and what you see. From Bergamo, most outings are by train and mostly under an hour: Milan's Duomo and Last Supper, Brescia, Lake Como and Lake Iseo, with Verona and Cremona further on.

From Catania, the trips are to the ancient world and to baroque Sicily: Ortigia and the Greek theatre in Siracusa, Taormina, then Noto, Modica and the mosaics of Piazza Armerina. Buses cover the main towns, but the baroque circuit really calls for a car.

Neither stands out for children, and the trade-offs are different. Bergamo is calm and safe, the funiculars are a treat and Leolandia and Le Cornelle are close, though the cobbled upper town is hard going with a buggy.

Catania offers more physical fun: gently shelving sand at La Playa, walking on old craters on Etna, and Etnaland's water park on a hot day. The city itself is hard work with children, with heavy traffic, narrow pavements and little shade.

Bergamo is much easier. Two funiculars handle the steep climbs, buses link the station and the airport, and direct trains reach Milan, Brescia and Lecco, so you only need a car for the upper valleys.

Catania's centre is compact enough to walk, but beyond Via Etnea and the Duomo things slow down. There is a single metro line, buses get stuck in traffic and drivers do not always stop for pedestrians. Most visitors end up hiring a car, and then struggle to park it.

Neither is a shopping destination, and both send serious buyers elsewhere, Bergamo's to Milan. What differs is the flavour. Bergamo's arcaded Sentierone has mid-range chains, and its upper-town lane is full of cheese shops and wine sellers.

Catania's Via Etnea does the same high-street job, but its loud daily La Fiera market is more fun. The things to take home are Bronte pistachio cream, Etna wine and painted Caltagirone ceramics, rather than Taleggio and Valcalepio.

Catania goes further on a modest budget. Street food makes a full meal for little, market-side trattorias are fairly priced, and guesthouses in the old centre are reasonable for most of the year. Midsummer rooms, sunbeds, guided trips to the summit and car hire are what push the cost up.

Bergamo is comfortable rather than cheap. Lower-town hotels are fair for a base in Lombardy and the funicular costs little, but staying or eating inside the Città Alta costs noticeably more.

Both are opera cities built around a native composer, and Catania gets more from its own. The Teatro Massimo Bellini runs a full opera and symphonic season in a grand nineteenth-century house, small companies keep the Sicilian puppet theatre of knights and Saracens alive, and summer brings concerts in courtyards and ancient theatres.

Bergamo's Teatro Donizetti has a good season and an autumn Donizetti festival that draws serious opera lovers, and Bergamo Jazz livens up the spring. Otherwise its programme is provincial, though La Scala is an easy evening away.

Bergamo is the better place to rest. San Pellegrino Terme, about forty minutes up the valley, has a thermal spa in a grand Belle Époque setting, the sulphur springs at Trescore Balneario go back to Roman times, and the upper town is quiet in the early morning.

In Catania, rest comes from the slow pace of the day rather than from any spa: long lunches, the evening passeggiata and a granita at breakfast. The centre itself is noisy, so a village on Etna's slopes makes a calmer base.