Catania or Genoa?

Catania has two kinds of swimming within the city. To the south is the long sand of La Playa. To the north, at Aci Castello and Aci Trezza, you climb down ladders from lava platforms into clear water beside the basalt sea stacks. The season also runs on into October.

Genoa's swimming in town is on a smaller scale: a pebble cove at Boccadasse and bathing establishments built over the rocks along Corso Italia and at Nervi. The prettier beaches are a train ride away on the Riviera. Most are pebble or coarse sand and packed with loungers at weekends, which works for an afternoon swim but less well for a beach vacation.

Both are serious eating cities where the best food is casual and fine dining is thin, but they taste very different. Catania's food is fried, rich and sweet: ragù-filled arancini, horse meat grilled over smoke on Via Plebiscito, pasta alla Norma and granita with brioche. La Pescheria is at the centre of it, and Etna's volcanic reds are in the glass.

Genoa cooks lighter and greener, with pesto, olive oil and chickpeas. You get focaccia at breakfast, farinata and panissa from the old friggitorie, pansoti in walnut sauce, and Vermentino or Pigato with the fish. Its Mercato Orientale, in a former cloister, is a calmer place to browse than the theatre of La Pescheria.

Genoa has more to fill the days. Its caruggi make up one of Europe's largest medieval quarters. Above them, the Rolli palaces of Via Garibaldi and Via Balbi hold Van Dyck and Rubens in painted halls, and there is also San Lorenzo, the Palazzo Ducale and the marble sculpture of Staglieno.

Catania is a single late-baroque set piece in black lava and pale limestone, from the elephant fountain to Via dei Crociferi and the vast San Nicolò monastery, with Roman remains beneath it. Its museums are modest, though, and two or three days covers the centre.

Catania is the livelier place after dark. Its large student population keeps the lanes around Piazza Bellini and Via Gemmellaro full until well past midnight, and in summer the beach clubs on La Playa become open-air dance floors.

Genoa is more reserved, with aperitivo around Piazza delle Erbe, waterfront bars at the Porto Antico and Foce, and quiet weeknights. Neither has much club culture. Genoa is for a late glass of wine in a medieval square, Catania for staying out.

Both are excellent for the outdoors, in very different ways. Catania's is one enormous, often smoking volcano. A cable car and off-road vehicles climb from the Rifugio Sapienza towards the summit craters, trails cross old lava flows, there is skiing with a sea view in winter, and the Alcantara Gorge is there to wade through.

Genoa has coastal and ridge walking instead. There is the fortress trail above Righi, the cliff paths of the Portofino promontory down to San Fruttuoso, the Cinque Terre terraces by train, and boat trips to see whales and dolphins in the Pelagos Sanctuary. Its milder summers also make walking easier than in Catania's lowland heat.

Catania opens up Greek and baroque Sicily. Ortigia in Siracusa and the ancient theatre at Taormina are each about an hour away, Noto, Modica and Ragusa Ibla take longer to reach, and the Piazza Armerina mosaics lie inland. Buses link the main towns, but the baroque towns are far simpler to string together by car.

Genoa's trips are mostly by rail along the coast. Trains reach Camogli, Santa Margherita, Sestri Levante and the Cinque Terre, and Portofino is a short bus or boat ride on from Santa Margherita. To the west, Noli and Finale Ligure Borgo take a train to Spotorno-Noli or Finale Ligure Marina and then a short bus ride or walk. Milan and Turin are about an hour and a half away on inland lines, so none of it needs a car.

Genoa is easier with children, mainly thanks to the Porto Antico. The aquarium, the science centre, the biosphere and the Galata museum's walk-through submarine are all together there, and the funiculars and public lifts are a ride in themselves. The stairs and dark lanes of the old town are hard going with a pushchair.

What Catania offers families is mostly outside the city: the gently shelving sand of La Playa, walks on Etna's craters for older children, and Etnaland on a hot day. In the centre there is heavy traffic, narrow pavements, little shade and not much aimed at children.

Genoa is the easier city without a car. The coastal railway reaches Nervi and the Riviera towns, and funiculars, a rack railway and public lifts deal with the hills. The slopes and the maze of lanes still take some effort on foot.

Catania's centre around Via Etnea and Piazza del Duomo is compact and easy to walk, but beyond it the single metro line and slow buses help little, and you need to take care crossing streets. Regional buses and the slow Circumetnea railway do exist, yet many visitors end up hiring a car and then struggling to park it.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Genoa has a little more to offer: the arcades of Via XX Settembre, smarter Italian labels on Via Roma and in the Galleria Mazzini, and old-town workshops making silver filigree and coral. Catania's Via Etnea is mostly chains, and the fun is in its markets, La Fiera and La Pescheria, and in edible souvenirs such as Bronte pistachio cream and Etna wine.

Both are fair value by Italian standards, and in each the cheapest meals are street food: arancini and crispelle in Catania, focaccia and farinata in Genoa. Where the money goes differs. In Catania it is guided trips to Etna's summit and the hire car the baroque towns almost demand, while in Genoa the trains keep day trips cheap but the Riviera resorts and their loungers are expensive in summer.

Each city has a proper opera house and a composer to claim: Bellini at Catania's Teatro Massimo Bellini, and Paganini in Genoa, home of the Teatro Carlo Felice on Piazza De Ferrari. Catania adds opera dei pupi marionette theatre and summer concerts in ancient theatres. Genoa has the established Teatro Nazionale, which performs in Italian, and small clubs that keep its singer-songwriter tradition going.

Neither city is restful, and neither has a bathing tradition of its own, so a spa means a hotel. Genoa has the easier escape, with Nervi's villa gardens and seafront promenade, and thermal waters at Acqui Terme a little over an hour away. In Catania the calm comes from the pace of the day, long lunches and a slow morning granita, or from staying in a quieter village on Etna's slopes.