Catania or Lucca?

Catania has the sea right at its edge, and two quite different kinds of it. La Playa to the south is a long sandy strip of beach clubs, while the lava coast north at Aci Castello and Aci Trezza means swimming off rocks and ladders into very clear water beside the basalt stacks.

Lucca is inland, so a swim means a train of about 25 minutes to Viareggio and the tidy rows of umbrellas along the Versilia sand, or the pine-backed dunes of the Lecciona for something wilder. It works well as a half day after sightseeing, but Catania lets you make the sea part of every day.

Catania is the stronger eating city by some way. Its tavola calda counters, cone-shaped arancini, fried crispelle and summer granita make casual eating a highlight, the Pescheria behind the cathedral supplies trattorias with the morning's swordfish, and Etna's volcanic vineyards add serious wines.

Lucca's cooking is honest and rustic: farro soup, tordelli in ragù, chestnut dishes in the cooler months and buccellato from the bakeries, with good local olive oil. It is reliable and fairly priced, but the menus repeat after a few days, and there is nothing like Catania's street-food culture.

The two are broadly level, but they show off very different pasts. Catania is a late-baroque city rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake in black lava and pale limestone, with the elephant fountain, Via dei Crociferi's churches and the vast San Nicolò l'Arena monastery, plus Roman theatres and an amphitheatre showing through underneath.

Lucca is older in feel: complete Renaissance walls around a medieval grid, carved Romanesque façades at San Michele and San Frediano, and houses built into the oval of a Roman amphitheatre. Neither has great museums. Lucca is the more coherent and peaceful to wander, Catania the grittier and more theatrical, especially during the February feast of Sant'Agata.

Catania is much the livelier choice after dark. A large university keeps the bars around Piazza Bellini, the Teatro Massimo and Via Gemmellaro full of people drinking outside late, and in summer the La Playa beach clubs turn into open-air dance floors.

Lucca's evenings are an aperitivo in Piazza San Michele, dinner and a stroll on the walls, with the streets quiet by midnight. Anyone wanting to dance has to head out to the Versilia discos and arrange a late ride back.

Etna gives Catania the edge. A smoking volcano of about 3,300m within an hour's reach, with a cable car from Rifugio Sapienza, walks across lava fields and old craters, and even small winter ski areas, is hard to match. Add the Alcantara Gorge and snorkelling off the lava coast, and the range is wide.

Lucca's outdoors is gentler: the tree-lined walls for running and cycling, olive-clad hills, and the Serchio cycle paths. The Apuan Alps, about an hour north, do offer marble-scarred peaks and serious hiking, and the Garfagnana chestnut woods are lovely in spring and autumn.

Both are excellent bases, but Lucca has the edge because so much lies on the railway. Pisa is half an hour by train, Florence a little over an hour, Pistoia and Montecatini are on the same line, and the Lucchesi villas, Collodi, Pietrasanta and even the Cinque Terre are within a day.

Catania's list is just as tempting, with Ortigia in Siracusa, Taormina's theatre, the baroque towns of Noto, Modica and Ragusa Ibla, and the Piazza Armerina mosaics. The difference is effort: buses cover the main towns, but the baroque circuit and inland sights really need a hire car.

Lucca is the easier city with children. Its centre is flat and mostly traffic-free, a family quadricycle ride round the walls is the classic outing, the oak trees on top of the Torre Guinigi delight younger ones, and the Pinocchio Park at Collodi and the Versilia sand are both close.

Catania has good days out, from the gently shelving sand at La Playa to walking on Etna's craters and the Etnaland water park. The city itself is harder going, with heavy traffic, narrow pavements and little shade in the fierce summer afternoons.

Lucca is far simpler. Inside the walls everything is a short walk or bike ride, with rental bikes at every gate, and the station just outside the southern walls links you to Pisa, Florence and the coast. Only the villas and hill villages call for a car.

Catania's historic core around Via Etnea and Piazza del Duomo is walkable too, but beyond it the single metro line, slow buses and impatient drivers make life harder. Most visitors end up hiring a car for Etna and the baroque towns, then struggle to park it in the centre.

Neither is a shopping destination, and both have their best buys in food and local craft. Catania's appeal lies in its markets: the big daily La Fiera and the theatre of the Pescheria, plus Bronte pistachio creams, Etna wines and Caltagirone ceramics, while Via Etnea is mostly chains.

Lucca is more charming to browse, with Via Fillungo's old Liberty shopfronts, delicatessens selling olive oil and buccellato, and one of Italy's oldest antiques markets filling the streets around the cathedral one weekend a month.

Catania goes further on a modest budget. Street food makes a full meal for little, market-side trattorias are fairly priced and old-centre apartments are reasonable for most of the year, though Etna summit tours, a hire car and La Playa sunbeds add up.

Lucca is cheaper than Florence but not cheap. Meals and regional trains are fair, yet rooms inside the walls are few and fill up in summer and at festival time, so accommodation takes the biggest bite and staying outside the walls is often smarter.

Each is the birthplace of a great opera composer, and they are evenly matched. Catania has Bellini, with the grand Teatro Massimo Bellini and its opera and symphonic season, plus the Sicilian marionette theatre of the opera dei pupi, which Lucca has nothing like.

Lucca has Puccini, and makes him easy to hear: short aria recitals in a central church through most of the year, the Teatro del Giglio's season, and in summer the lakeside Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago and big outdoor concerts in Piazza Napoleone.

Lucca is clearly the more restful of the two. Traffic-free streets and shaded evening walks on the walls set a slow pace, and genuine spa days are close by at the belle époque baths of Montecatini, the cave pools of Monsummano and the steam grottoes of Bagni di Lucca.

Catania is noisy and traffic-bound, with no bathing tradition and spas mostly limited to coastal or Etna hotels. Long lunches and the evening passeggiata help, but rest-seekers do better staying in a quiet village on the volcano.