Catania or Florence?

The gap here is huge. Catania has two kinds of coast right on its doorstep. To the south are the broad sands and beach clubs of La Playa, and to the north are the black basalt rocks of Aci Castello and Aci Trezza, where you climb down ladders into very clear water beside the sea stacks.

Florence is inland, so swimming means a hotel pool or a full day on the train to the lounger-lined beaches of the Versilia. If the sea is part of the plan, Catania delivers it every day, and Florence only as a separate excursion.

Both are excellent places to eat, and both do their best cooking casually rather than in fine dining. In Catania that means street food: cone-shaped arancini, fried crispelle, granita with brioche for breakfast, horse meat grilled on Via Plebiscito and swordfish from La Pescheria. Etna's volcanic wines go with all of it.

Florence is about meat, bread and olive oil: thick bistecca, ribollita, lampredotto from the carts and Chianti Classico by the glass. Expect fish and pastries in Catania and beef and Tuscan reds in Florence, and keep away from the set menus around the Duomo.

Florence is in a different league. Botticelli and Leonardo at the Uffizi, the David in the Accademia, the Bargello's sculpture and the Pitti Palace together make one of the densest collections of Renaissance art in the world, and the smaller chapels and churches are just as rewarding.

Catania's appeal is its townscape: a late-baroque city of dark lava stone and pale limestone, the Benedictine monastery of San Nicolò l'Arena and a Roman theatre tucked among the streets. The museums are modest and two or three days are enough, unless you are there for the great Sant'Agata procession in February.

Catania stays out later and louder. Its university crowd fills the lanes around Piazza Bellini and Via Gemmellaro with outdoor drinking well past midnight, and in summer the beach clubs on La Playa turn into open-air dance floors.

Florence's evenings are gentler: aperitivo, then a wine bar on Piazza Santo Spirito or around Sant'Ambrogio, with the night winding down fairly early. Neither city has much serious club culture, but Catania is the one for dancing.

Etna gives Catania the edge. A smoking volcano of about 3,300m sits less than an hour away, with a cable car, trails across lava flows and side craters, and small ski slopes in winter. Add the Alcantara Gorge to wade through and snorkelling or kayaking around the sea stacks, and you have real variety.

Florence's countryside is gentler and cultivated: olive terraces at Fiesole, cycling lanes through Chianti, and further out the forests of the Casentino and the marble peaks of the Apuan Alps. It is lovely for walking, but it is not dramatic in the way Etna is.

Both make superb bases, but Florence has more first-rank towns closer together. Siena, Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano and the Chianti villages are all within easy reach, and Bologna is a short high-speed train ride away, with rail covering the main towns well.

Catania's list is strong as well: Ortigia and the Greek theatre at Siracusa, Taormina, the baroque towns of Noto, Modica and Ragusa Ibla, and the mosaics at Piazza Armerina. The distances are longer and the buses thinner, though, so a car matters more in Sicily.

Neither is an easy city with children, but they work in different ways. Catania's family days happen outside the centre: shallow sand at La Playa, crater walks on Etna and the Etnaland water park. Inside the city, traffic and a lack of shade make it tiring.

Florence keeps children busy in town, with climbing the dome, the secret passages of Palazzo Vecchio, the globes at the Museo Galileo and the Boboli Gardens. Beyond that there is little apart from the Pinocchio park at Collodi.

Florence is far easier. The Duomo, the Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio and the Pitti Palace are all a short walk apart, the main station is in the centre, and trains carry you straight out on day trips. A car is only useful for the hill villages.

Catania's centre is walkable along Via Etnea, but beyond it the single metro line and slow buses struggle in heavy traffic. Most visitors end up hiring a car for Etna and the baroque towns, and then find parking a battle.

Florence is a real shopping city, built on craft: leather from San Lorenzo and small workshops, marbled paper, goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio, gilders and restorers in the Oltrarno, and luxury fashion along Via de' Tornabuoni.

Catania is better for markets than for shops. La Fiera and La Pescheria are entertaining, but Via Etnea is mostly chains. The things worth carrying home are Bronte pistachio cream, Etna wine and Caltagirone ceramics.

Catania goes noticeably further for your money. 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 to wander. The extra costs come from a hire car, summit excursions and summer sunbeds.

Florence is expensive for its size. Central hotels are dear from spring to autumn, and the entry fees for the big museums and the dome climb add up. Lampredotto stalls, market lunches and walking everywhere help, but it remains the costlier stay.

The two are close, and both lean towards opera. Catania is Bellini's city, with a grand opera house named after him, a museum of his manuscripts and the old marionette theatre of knights and Saracens, which is something Florence lacks.

Florence, where opera was born around 1600, has the Maggio Musicale festival and a resident orchestra, though most visitors end up at tourist-pitched concerts in churches. In both cities, jazz and theatre won't fill a week of evenings.

Florence offers a little more calm. Its own spas are limited to hotels, but early mornings in the Boboli and Bardini gardens help, and Montecatini Terme and the sulphur pools of Saturnia and Bagno Vignoni are within reach, along with farm stays in the hills.

Catania is noisy and has no bathing tradition. Rest there comes from long lunches, a slow granita and perhaps a few nights in a quieter village on Etna's slopes.