Catania or Tunis?

Catania has the better swimming within the city itself, and it comes in two kinds. La Playa to the south is a long sandy beach lined with beach clubs. To the north, at Aci Castello and Aci Trezza, you climb down ladders from lava-rock platforms into very clear water, with basalt stacks just offshore.

In Tunis the swimming is a train ride away, on the sandy beaches of La Marsa and Gammarth, because the water near the port and lagoon is less clean. For a fuller beach day, each city sends you somewhere else: Taormina's Isola Bella for coves, or Hammamet's wide, calm beaches.

Catania is the stronger food city. Its street food runs from ragù arancini and fried crispelle to horse meat grilled on Via Plebiscito, and La Pescheria supplies the trattorias around it. Etna's volcanic wines and Bronte pistachio granita add a local depth that Tunis cannot match.

Tunis is cheap, spicy and very good at the quick end: brik with a runny egg, lablabi for breakfast, harissa on almost everything, and pastries from the medina's sweet shops. Beyond the seafood places of La Goulette and La Marsa, though, sit-down options are thin, and wine is limited to licensed restaurants and hotels.

Tunis has the deeper set of sights. Its UNESCO-listed medina is a complete working old city of souks, madrasas and carved doorways around the Zitouna Mosque, and the French-built boulevards beyond it show a second chapter of history. The Bardo holds one of the world's great collections of Roman mosaics, and Carthage and Sidi Bou Said fill several more days.

Catania offers a single, coherent look: late-baroque streets of dark lava stone, rebuilt after 1693, with Via dei Crociferi and the vast San Nicolò monastery as highlights. It has Roman remains too, but its museums are modest and the centre takes two or three days. The Feast of Sant'Agata in February is its great spectacle.

Catania is the place to go out. A large student population keeps the small bars around Piazza Bellini and the Teatro Massimo busy until well past midnight, with drinkers spilling into the lanes. In summer, the beach clubs along La Playa turn into open-air dance floors.

In Tunis, evenings mostly mean coffee, mint tea and shisha in cafés. The downtown beer bars are rough and largely male. A mixed late-night scene exists only in the lounges and beach clubs of La Marsa and Gammarth on summer weekends.

Etna gives Catania a huge advantage. A smoking volcano of about 3,300m sits within an hour of the city, with a cable car up from the Rifugio Sapienza, trails across lava fields and beech woods, and even small ski areas in winter. Add the Alcantara Gorge and the dive and kayak waters of the Riviera dei Ciclopi, and few Mediterranean cities have more outdoors on the doorstep.

Tunis's surroundings are gentle by comparison. You can watch flamingos on the lagoon, take short hikes on Bou Kornine and walk the clifftops at Sidi Bou Said. Ichkeul's wetlands are a real draw for birdwatchers, but trails and outfitters are scarce.

Both make good bases, but Catania's best trips are closer and more varied. Siracusa's Ortigia and Taormina's Greek theatre are each about an hour away. The baroque towns of Noto, Modica and Ragusa, plus the mosaics at Piazza Armerina, complete the list. A hire car makes the baroque circuit much easier.

From Tunis, the main trips take longer. The Roman town of Dougga and the holy city of Kairouan are each about two hours away, and most visitors use a driver or a shared louage. What they offer is a world Sicily cannot: Roman Africa among olive groves, the Great Mosque of the Maghreb's holiest city, and Testour's Andalusian heritage.

Catania gives children more to do. There are the gently shelving sands of La Playa, walks on old craters up Etna and the Etnaland theme and water park for a hot day. Its streets are still hard going, with heavy traffic, narrow pavements and little shade.

Tunis welcomes children just as warmly, and Belvedere Park's small zoo and the open ruins of Carthage make good outings. Beyond those, very little is built for children, and a pushchair is a struggle in the medina. Many families stay at a beach hotel and visit the city for the day.

Getting around is about equally easy in both cities, but in different ways. Catania's sights cluster along Via Etnea and around Piazza del Duomo, so the centre is easily walked. Beyond it the single metro line and slow buses help little, so most visitors hire a car for Etna and the baroque towns, and then struggle to park it.

Tunis works better without a car. The TGM suburban railway runs across the lagoon to Carthage, Sidi Bou Said and La Marsa, and metered yellow taxis are plentiful. Longer trips rely on louage minibuses or a hired driver.

Tunis has the more rewarding shopping, as long as you enjoy souks. Its covered medina lanes are still partly arranged by trade, with chechia makers, perfumers, kilims, brass and leather, and patient bargaining deeper in pays off.

Catania's main street, Via Etnea, is mostly Italian chains, and La Fiera sells everyday goods rather than crafts. Its best buys are edible, such as pistachio cream, almond pastries and Etna wine, along with Caltagirone ceramics. Neither city offers much luxury shopping.

Tunis is much the cheaper city. Meals where locals eat, café stops, taxis and train rides cost very little, and restored medina guesthouses cost a fraction of their Mediterranean equivalents. Only Gammarth's smart hotels, imported alcohol and organised tours approach European prices.

Catania is good value by Western European standards, with cheap street food and fairly priced trattorias. However, summer rooms, beach-club sunbeds, guided trips to Etna's summit and a hire car for the baroque towns all add noticeably to the bill.

Catania has more for an evening out. The Teatro Massimo Bellini, in the composer's birthplace, runs a full opera and symphonic season that a visitor can easily book into, and small companies still stage the Sicilian puppet theatre of knights and Saracens.

Tunis comes into its own in particular seasons. The Carthage festival fills the Roman theatre with concerts in summer, and Ennejma Ezzahra in Sidi Bou Said hosts malouf recitals. On an ordinary weeknight, however, choice is thin, and plays at the Municipal Theatre are mostly in Arabic or French.

Tunis is clearly better for rest and treatments. Medina hammams still serve their neighbourhoods, Gammarth's resorts offer full thalassotherapy, and the Roman-era springs of Korbous are an hour away on Cap Bon.

Catania has no bathing tradition, and its spas are mostly in hotels on the coast or on Etna's slopes. In Catania, calm comes from the pace of the day: a long lunch, the evening passeggiata, or a stay in a quiet village on the volcano.