Catania or Cortina d'Ampezzo?

This is Catania's category by a wide margin. South of the centre, La Playa offers broad sand with beach clubs. North of it, around Aci Castello and Aci Trezza, you climb down ladders off black lava platforms into clear water beside the basalt sea stacks. The sea is warm enough for comfortable swimming through the summer and into autumn.

Cortina sits in a high mountain valley more than two hours from the Adriatic. Its lakes, such as Ghedina and Pianozes, are fed by snowmelt and suit a cold dip at most. For a real swim you will need the hotel pool.

Catania eats far more widely and more cheaply. There are cone-shaped arancini and fried crispelle at the tavola calda counters, horse meat grilled on Via Plebiscito, pasta alla Norma, and granita with brioche for breakfast. La Pescheria supplies the trattorias that surround it, and Etna's volcanic vineyards make wines worth seeking out.

Cortina's cooking is good for a small resort, but its range is narrow. Expect Ampezzan dishes such as beetroot casunziei with poppy seeds, polenta with game, and barley soup, ideally eaten on a rifugio terrace among the peaks. There is little street food, almost nothing international and not much that is cheap.

Catania gives you a real city to explore. Its late-baroque centre of dark lava stone and pale limestone is UNESCO-listed, with Via dei Crociferi lined with churches and the vast Benedictine monastery of San Nicolò l'Arena. Roman remains and Castello Ursino add older layers, enough for two or three days.

Cortina has a pleasant centre with its basilica bell tower, painted houses and the 1956 Olympic ice stadium. Its three small museums, led by the Rimoldi art collection, fill a wet afternoon. Its most moving heritage is the First World War front line on Lagazuoi and the Cinque Torri, and reaching it means a day in the mountains.

Catania is the place for going out. A large student population fills the lanes around Piazza Bellini and Via Gemmellaro with outdoor drinkers until well past midnight. In summer, the La Playa beach clubs become open-air dance floors.

Cortina's evenings mean après-ski, a stroll along the Corso Italia and a long dinner. Only in the peak winter weeks do a few smart bars and clubs stay open late, and most of the year the town is quiet by late evening.

Both cities are dominated by mountains, but Cortina's setting is the grander. The Tofane, Cristallo and Cinque Torri rise straight from the valley, and the Tre Cime and Lago di Misurina are close. Summer brings hut-to-hut hiking and climbing, and winter brings the Dolomiti Superski network.

Catania has one mighty volcano rather than a whole range. Etna gives you crater walks, lava flows and modest ski slopes with views of the sea. The Alcantara Gorge and snorkelling around the Riviera dei Ciclopi add variety that Cortina cannot match, but low-level hiking in summer is hot work.

From Catania, the outings are major destinations in their own right: Ortigia and the Greek theatre at Siracusa, Taormina's theatre above the sea, the baroque towns of Noto, Modica and Ragusa Ibla, and the mosaics of the Villa Romana del Casale. Few bases in Italy have so much within reach.

From Cortina, most days out lead further into the mountains. The towns you can reach, such as San Candido, Brunico and Bolzano with its Iceman, are attractive rather than essential, and Venice means a long coach journey each way.

Both work for families, but in different ways. Catania is a summer beach trip, with gently shelving sand at La Playa, the Etnaland water park and crater walks for older children. The city itself is hot, traffic-heavy and short on attractions for children.

Cortina suits active families. It has ski schools, beginner slopes at Socrepes, public skating, easy lake walks and a rope park, and its centre is calm and safe. Wet days with small children can drag, though, and the costs climb quickly.

Both have compact centres you can walk, and both become harder beyond them. Catania at least has a metro line, regional buses to Siracusa, Taormina and Etna, and the slow Circumetnea railway, though traffic is heavy and parking is a struggle.

Cortina has had no railway since 1964, so you arrive by coach from Venice or by car. In winter, ski buses and lifts cover the slopes, but buses to the passes and the Tre Cime are limited. In both places, a hire car opens up the wider region.

Neither is a major shopping destination, but they could hardly differ more in style. Catania has chain stores along Via Etnea and the noisy La Fiera market. The best souvenirs are edible, such as Bronte pistachio cream and Etna wine, along with Caltagirone ceramics.

Cortina packs luxury fashion, jewellers and upmarket mountain wear into the short Corso Italia. Its anchor is the Cooperativa di Cortina, which dates from 1893, alongside wood carving and filigree. It is polished, expensive and confined to one street.

Catania is by far the easier on the wallet. Street food, market lunches, cheap buses and free baroque streets keep daily costs down, though summer rooms, beach club sunbeds and summit trips on Etna push them up.

Cortina charges luxury-resort prices in the winter peak and in August, and lift passes and equipment hire add to the bill. The rifugi offer the best value, and many travellers on a budget sleep in cheaper nearby valleys.

As Bellini's birthplace, Catania has a working opera house, the Teatro Massimo Bellini, with a season a visitor can actually attend. It also keeps alive the opera dei pupi marionette tradition, and in summer concerts move into courtyards and ancient theatres.

Cortina has no theatre season or regular venue. Its summer chamber music festivals, sometimes held in mountain settings, are the main occasion, with little else outside them.

Cortina is the more restful choice. Its hotel spas offer saunas, hay baths and indoor pools after a day outdoors, and in June, September and the quieter winter weeks the valley is calm and the air is clear.

Catania's centre is noisy and full of traffic, and spas are found mainly in coastal or Etna resorts. Its calm comes from habit instead: long lunches, the evening passeggiata and a slow granita at breakfast.