Dolomites or Tuscany?

The Dolomites have no coast, and the famous high lakes such as Braies are too cold for most swimmers. Bathing means valley lidos at Lake Caldaro, village pools, or a drive down to the top of Lake Garda from Trento.

Tuscany has a real summer sea. Elba has the clearest water and sandy bays, the Maremma and Argentario have quieter beaches backed by pines, and Versilia offers miles of sand lined with beach clubs. The catch is distance: from Florence or the hill towns the coast is a separate trip.

Both eat very well, but Tuscany makes food and wine the reason for the trip. Its plain, ingredient-led cooking runs from Florentine steak and street-cart lampredotto to Pienza pecorino and autumn truffles in San Miniato. Chianti, Montalcino and Montepulciano turn a drive into a run of cellar visits.

The Dolomites offer something different: Alpine dishes such as speck, canederli and strudel sit beside Italian espresso and Ladin specialities. The best meals are often hut lunches at altitude, or a surprisingly refined dinner in Alta Badia, with Lagrein and Gewürztraminer from the slopes near Bolzano.

Here the gap is wide. Tuscany is where the Renaissance began. Florence packs the Uffizi, the Accademia, the Bargello and the great frescoed churches into a centre you can walk. Siena's Campo, Pisa's marble square, San Gimignano's towers and the abbeys in open country follow close behind.

The Dolomites are listed by UNESCO for their landscape rather than their buildings. Ötzi in Bolzano's archaeology museum, Trento's Buonconsiglio castle, Bressanone's cloister and the First World War tunnels on the passes are worthwhile, but they mostly fill the rainy days.

Neither is a party destination, but Tuscany gives you more to do after dark. Florence has students and visitors gathering on the steps of Santo Spirito and wine bars in Oltrarno. In summer the Versilia coast keeps its beach clubs and dance halls going until dawn.

In the Dolomites the evening revolves around dinner. Winter brings après-ski in Selva, Canazei and Cortina, but it winds down early, and in summer most villages are quiet by eleven.

The Dolomites have some of the finest mountain scenery in Europe. Limestone towers such as the Tre Cime and Sassolungo rise straight out of meadows, lifts start in nearly every village, and hut-to-hut routes such as the Alta Via 1 cross the range. Via ferrata cables, road-cycling passes and a huge linked ski area fill both seasons.

Tuscany's beauty is gentler and shaped by farming: cypress lanes, the Val d'Orcia and the Crete Senesi, best seen by bike or on foot between hill towns. For wilder country there are the ridges of the Apuan Alps, the Maremma park and the waters around Elba.

Tuscany has more outings than one stay can hold. From Florence or Chianti, Siena, Lucca, Pisa, Volterra and San Gimignano are all close. Bologna, the Umbrian towns and the Cinque Terre lie just past the border.

The Dolomites have good trips too, mainly from the Adige valley: Merano, Bressanone, the wine route, Verona by train and Innsbruck over the Brenner. From the high villages, though, every outing starts on a slow pass road, so trips take more effort.

In summer the Dolomites have the edge for young children. Lifts reach wide, nearly flat paths on the Alpe di Siusi and the Armentara meadows, huts have playgrounds and animals, and many hotels are built around children's clubs and pools. Winter ski schools and nursery slopes are well run.

Tuscany works best for families who split the stay between a farmhouse with a pool and a shallow, lifeguarded beach. Collodi's Pinocchio park and cycling on Lucca's walls help, but the Florence galleries and the July heat are hard work for small children.

Both are manageable without a car only if you keep to one corridor. In the Dolomites that means trains along the Adige and Puster valleys, buses up to the resorts, and lifts once you arrive. Crossing between valleys means hairpin pass roads, and Cortina has no station at all.

In Tuscany the easy line is Florence, which is best on foot, with trains to Pisa, Lucca and the coast. Chianti, the Val d'Orcia and the Maremma need a car, old centres are closed to visitors' traffic, and Elba needs a ferry.

Tuscany has the stronger shopping. Florence has leather workshops around Santa Croce, goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio, marbled paper in Oltrarno and the luxury houses of Via de' Tornabuoni. Other towns add their own crafts, from alabaster in Volterra to ceramics in Montelupo, and there are large designer outlets in the Arno valley.

In the Dolomites the shopping is narrower and more local: carved wood from Ortisei, loden in Bolzano's arcades, the Advent markets, and speck, cheese and grappa to take home.

Lift passes, guided climbs and resort hotels in Cortina, Alta Badia or Val Gardena make the Dolomites the dearer of the two in winter and in July and August. Val di Fassa, Val di Fiemme and the valley towns of Bolzano and Trento cost less, and June or September bring the same mountains at lower room rates.

Tuscany is expensive too, especially central Florence and Forte dei Marmi, but trattoria meals, market lunches and wine bought at the cellar door keep the daily bill down. Lucca, Arezzo, Pistoia and the Maremma towns are noticeably cheaper, and car hire is the extra cost to plan for.

Tuscany offers far more to see on stage. The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino has its own opera house in Florence. Puccini is performed year-round in Lucca and outdoors by the lake at Torre del Lago each summer, and the Accademia Chigiana fills Siena's palaces with chamber music.

The Dolomites have a regional orchestra and a piano competition in Bolzano and an autumn festival in Merano. Their most memorable performances are the summer concerts on alpine meadows and hut terraces. Outside the festivals there is little on.

Tuscany's wellness comes from its hot springs, and much of it is open to anyone. You can bathe in the warm terraced pools at Saturnia, see the medieval steaming square of Bagno Vignoni and the grand pump rooms of Montecatini. A farmhouse stay in the Val d'Orcia adds the slow pace.

In the Dolomites, wellness mostly means the hotel spa: saunas facing rock walls, outdoor pools in the snow and the old hay bath near Völs. Merano's thermal baths are the main public option, so choose the hotel with care.