Catania or Como?

This is a real difference. Catania gives you two kinds of sea swimming: the long sandy beach of La Playa with its clubs, and the black basalt Riviera dei Ciclopi, where you climb down ladders into clear water beside the sea stacks. The season runs from June well into October.

Como has no beaches in that sense. Swimming there means lawns and pontoons at lidos such as the one by Villa Olmo, or small pebble strands up the lake reached by ferry, and only for about three summer months.

Catania eats far more memorably. Its tavola calda counters fry ragù arancini and crispelle, Via Plebiscito grills meat over smoke at night, and breakfast is pistachio granita with brioche. La Pescheria supplies the trattorias around it, and Etna's volcanic vineyards add some serious wine.

Como's cooking is Lombard and rooted in the lake: perch risotto, missoltini and polenta, with a good aperitivo ritual on the cathedral squares. You will find little street food, and the lakefront terraces often charge for the view, so the better meals are up the lake.

Catania has more to see and more layers to it. Its UNESCO-listed late-baroque centre is built in lava stone and limestone, with Via dei Crociferi and the vast monastery of San Nicolò l'Arena. Underneath sit a Roman theatre and amphitheatre, and the city needs two or three days.

Como's old town is a day's visit but of high quality: a marble cathedral, Romanesque San Fedele and Sant'Abbondio, and Terragni's Casa del Fascio, a draw for anyone interested in modern architecture.

Catania wins easily. A big student population fills the lanes around Piazza Bellini and Via Gemmellaro with outdoor drinking well past midnight, and in summer the La Playa beach clubs turn into dance floors.

In Como, an evening means aperitivo, dinner and a lakefront stroll, with a few bars near Piazza Duomo afterwards. Those who want a big night take the train to Milan.

Both are excellent, but in very different ways. In Catania everything centres on Etna: you can take the cable car and off-road vehicles towards smoking summit craters, walk across lava flows, and even ski in winter. The Alcantara Gorge and snorkelling along the lava coast add more variety.

Como's landscape is greener and gentler. It has a glacial lake between wooded mountains, ridge paths from Brunate, the Greenway between villages, and paddling or sailing on calm water. It also has classic road-cycling climbs to the Madonna del Ghisallo.

Both are first-rate bases, and the difference is in how you travel. From Catania you can reach Greek and Roman Sicily, with Siracusa's Ortigia, Taormina's theatre and the Piazza Armerina mosaics, plus the baroque towns of Noto, Modica and Ragusa, though a car makes the longer circuit much easier.

From Como, ferries and trains do the work. Bellagio, Varenna and the villa gardens at Tremezzo are a boat ride away, Milan's Last Supper is under an hour by rail, and you can be in Switzerland at Lugano in about half an hour.

Neither is especially built for children, and they suit different families. Catania has the gently shelving sand at La Playa, Etnaland's rides and water park, and crater walks that older children enjoy, but the city itself is hot, short of shade and tough with traffic.

Como is calmer and safer underfoot, and young children enjoy the boats, the funicular and the lakeside gardens, though there is little laid on specifically for them.

Como is the easier place to manage without a car. Its flat centre and lakefront are simple to walk, and trains, ferries and the funicular reach most of what visitors want, even if the slow boats and clogged shore roads test your patience in summer.

Catania's compact core around Via Etnea is fine on foot, but beyond it you get one metro line, slow buses and drivers who ignore crossings. Most people end up hiring a car for Etna and the baroque towns.

In Catania the best buys are things to eat and drink: Bronte pistachio cream, almond pastries, candied fruit and Etna wine. The fun is in hunting for them through the noise of La Fiera's daily stalls around Piazza Carlo Alberto. Painted Caltagirone ceramics and lava-stone pieces are the local crafts, and Via Etnea covers the Italian chains.

Como sells silk, the trade it has lived on for centuries. You can buy scarves, ties and fabric from specialists in the old town and from the mill outlets on the city's edge that supply the fashion houses. Its boutique streets are short, so for serious fashion people take the train to Milan.

Catania is clearly the cheaper stay. Street food makes a full meal for little, rooms in the old centre are reasonable for most of the year, and the baroque streets cost nothing. Summer rooms, Etna summit tours and car hire are where the costs mount.

Como attracts a luxury lake crowd, so waterside hotels and villa rentals in summer are expensive. Rooms set back from the lake, hill trattorias and the cheap trains and ferries help, as do spring and autumn.

Catania offers more for an evening out. Bellini was born here, so the Teatro Massimo Bellini has a proper opera and symphonic season, and the city still keeps its tradition of opera dei pupi, the puppet theatre of knights and Saracens.

Como's Teatro Sociale and its open-air summer Arena run a respectable mixed programme, and chamber music in villas and churches makes good use of the settings. Beyond that, many nights are quiet, and La Scala in Milan draws the keen.

Como is the more restful choice, though neither city has a thermal bathing tradition. Its calm comes from the setting: gardens down to the water, slow ferries and villages where evenings end early, plus spas in the grand villa hotels.

Catania's centre is loud and full of traffic, so rest there comes mainly from long lunches and the evening passeggiata, or from moving up to a quieter village on Etna.