Corsica or Umbria?

Corsica is one of the Mediterranean's great beach destinations. The far south has pale sand and clear water at Palombaggia, Santa Giulia and Rondinara. In the Agriates, Saleccia and Lotu are reached by boat, and the west coast has granite coves. The famous southern bays fill early in August, so a car helps.

Umbria has no coast at all. You swim at the small beaches on Lake Trasimeno, where the water is warm and shallow but often cloudy, with a muddy bottom in places, or in a farmhouse pool. The sea is at least two hours' drive away.

Both cook hill food built on pork, cheese and game rather than seafood, and neither offers much beyond its own tradition. Corsica's charcuterie, brocciu and chestnut dishes are distinctive and its Patrimonio wines are serious, and its coast adds grilled fish and lobster, which Umbria lacks. But the best meals are in inland inns and markets, and summer beach menus are often ordinary.

Umbria does country cooking with more depth. It has black truffle on handmade strangozzi, Norcia's butchery and Castelluccio lentils. Its wine is a reason to come in itself: Sagrantino around Montefalco and the whites of Orvieto. Perugia has the widest choice of restaurants.

Corsica's sights are mostly about defence: the forts and towers Genoa built around its shores, Bonifacio's old town on white cliffs above the sea, Calvi's citadel, and Corte, once capital of the island's short-lived independent republic. Ajaccio adds Napoleon's birthplace and the Italian paintings of the Palais Fesch, and Filitosa has carved prehistoric stones. They make good stops on a road trip, but the setting usually matters more than what is inside.

Umbria is in another league for art. Giotto and Cimabue's frescoes line the Basilica of St Francis at Assisi, Signorelli's Last Judgement fills a chapel in Orvieto's cathedral, and Perugia's Galleria Nazionale holds Perugino and Piero della Francesca. Gubbio, Spoleto, Todi and Spello are each worth a day, and the hill towns themselves are the attraction more than any large museum.

Neither suits a big night out, and in both an evening usually means a long dinner and a drink. The difference is when and where. Corsica's livelier nights come in high summer, with large open-air clubs in the hills behind Porto-Vecchio and late beach and harbour bars in Calvi. Umbria's centre on Perugia, where university and language students fill the main street, the cathedral steps and the wine bars of the old town on warm evenings.

Corsica is far more dramatic. Its peaks rise above 2,700m within sight of the sea, and the GR20 runs along the island's spine. The red rocks of the Calanques de Piana, the needles of Bavella and the Scandola cliffs are its high points. The sea adds diving, sailing and kayaking around Scandola and the Lavezzi islands.

Umbria is gentler, with olive groves and oak woods, until the Monti Sibillini rise in the east and the Castelluccio plain flowers in early summer. Rafting in the Valnerina, the Marmore Falls and the Spoleto to Norcia cycle path give it good variety, but on a smaller scale.

On Corsica, slow mountain roads give each base only a few outings. From the south you can visit Sartène or take a ferry to Sardinia. Calvi is close to the Balagne villages, Bastia to Cap Corse, and Corte can be reached by the island railway.

Umbria is made for day trips. From Perugia or Spoleto a different hill town fills each day, such as Gubbio, Todi, Spello, Bevagna or Norcia. Cortona, Montepulciano and Siena are within easy reach, and Rome is a little over an hour by train from Orvieto.

Corsica is the better pick for children, as long as the trip centres on the beach. Sheltered bays such as Santa Giulia have shallow, calm water, and the east and south coasts have campsites and resort villages with pools. River pools and boat trips to sea caves fill the other days. Winding drives are hard on young passengers, so one base works best.

Umbria offers a quieter version: a farmhouse with a pool and animals, Lake Trasimeno's shallow water, the Marmore Falls and an amusement park near Perugia. But its highlights are frescoed churches and steep cobbled towns, which tire children and are hard work with a pushchair.

Both need a car, but Corsica is much harder to get around. Its narrow, winding roads make journeys far longer than the map suggests, and summer traffic slows the coast near the resorts. The narrow-gauge railway between Ajaccio, Corte, Bastia and Calvi is a pleasure in itself, but it misses the south.

Umbria is small and easy to drive, with short distances and light traffic outside Perugia. In the hill towns you park below the walls and ride up by escalator, lift or funicular. Without a car, trains link Perugia, Assisi, Spello and Spoleto, and Orvieto sits on the Rome to Florence line.

Corsica mostly sells what it eats and drinks: charcuterie, cheese, chestnut flour, honey and island wine, along with hand-forged knives. The morning markets of Ajaccio and Bastia and the craft villages of the Balagne are the places to buy them. A few summer boutiques in Porto-Vecchio and Calvi are about all there is for clothes.

Umbria has more to browse beyond the larder. Deruta's workshops have painted majolica for centuries, Gubbio and Orvieto have their own ceramics, Montefalco and Bevagna weave linen, and there are cashmere outlets around Perugia. Norcia's shops are hung with hams and stocked with truffles, and Perugia's Corso Vannucci has ordinary high-street shops, though there are no luxury streets.

Corsica is expensive in the months when people go. Rooms in Porto-Vecchio, Bonifacio and Calvi are dear in July and August, coastal restaurants charge resort prices, and ferries and car hire add up. Campsites, inland villages and a trip in June or September keep costs down.

Umbria is noticeably cheaper. Farmhouse stays and small hotels cost less than across the Tuscan border, set lunches are good value, local wine is cheap and churches cost little to enter. The bill rises with car hire, summer rooms in Assisi and Orvieto, and truffle dishes.

Corsica's most distinctive sound is polyphonic singing, unaccompanied male voices in close harmony, heard in village and town churches mostly in summer. Add the jazz festival in Calvi and guitar evenings in the Patrimonio vineyards, and that is most of the year's offer. There is no opera.

Umbria stages far more, though it too is at its liveliest in summer. In July Umbria Jazz brings big names to Perugia and free bands to its squares, and from late June the Festival dei Due Mondi fills Spoleto's Roman theatre and opera house with opera, theatre and dance. Perugia's Teatro Morlacchi and Spoleto's opera house have seasons outside the festivals.

In both places rest comes from the slow pace rather than from spas, and neither has a real bathing tradition. In Corsica that means siestas, long lunches and quiet mountain villages. Spas are mostly found in upmarket hotels around Porto-Vecchio, Calvi and Ajaccio.

Umbria offers rest a little more deliberately. Many country houses have pools, massage or yoga, and Assisi's hermitages on Monte Subasio are a place for silence. There are also small, long-established spas at Fontecchio, San Gemini and Nocera Umbra.