Florence or Matera?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Matera is closer to the sea. From Florence the coast means the Versilia, an hour and a half away by train, with beaches of rented loungers and umbrellas, so most visitors make do with a pool.

Matera's Ionian shore at Metaponto and Policoro is about half that distance by car. It has wide sandy beaches backed by pine woods and calm, shallow water that suits children. The catch is that without a car it is hard to get there, while Florence's coast is at least on the railway.

Both cities cook plain regional food, but Florence gives you far more to choose from. There is bistecca, ribollita and lampredotto from the street carts, the Mercato Centrale and Sant'Ambrogio markets, Chianti by the glass and serious gelato, so you can eat anything from a quick lunch to fine dining.

Matera's cooking is narrower and more rustic: pane di Matera, crapiata, cavatelli, crackling peperoni cruschi and Aglianico to drink. It is well worth tasting, but there is no market or street-food culture, and after a few days the menus start to repeat.

Florence is the place where the Renaissance happened: Brunelleschi's dome, Botticelli in the Uffizi, David in the Accademia, the Bargello's sculpture and the Pitti Palace. There is enough here for a full week of galleries and churches.

Matera's sights take two or three days, but they are unlike anything in Tuscany. There are the cave dwellings of Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano, frescoed rock churches such as Santa Maria de Idris, and the Palombaro Lungo cistern under the main square. The town itself is the sight, more than anything in its museums.

Neither city is for dancing until dawn, but Florence has more going on after dark. People gather with drinks around Piazza Santo Spirito, Sant'Ambrogio has bars where locals drink, students fill the pubs near the centre, and in summer bars open along the Arno.

In Matera the evening means the passeggiata on Via del Corso, dinner, and a drink on a terrace above the lit-up Sassi, plus a few cave bars that stay open late in summer. Outside the warm months the town goes quiet soon after dinner.

The countryside is about as close in both cities, but it feels different. Around Florence it is farmed and gentle: olive terraces at Fiesole, Chianti lanes for cycling, and the Casentino forests further out.

Matera's countryside is wilder and begins right below the town. A path drops into the Gravina gorge and climbs to the Murgia plateau, past abandoned rock churches and Neolithic sites, and the Lucanian Dolomites and the Pollino can be reached by car. In both places, avoid long walks on summer afternoons.

Both cities make good bases, but Florence has more places within reach, and they are easier to get to. Siena, Pisa, Lucca and Bologna are each about an hour or less by train or bus, and San Gimignano, Volterra and the Chianti villages are easy with a car or on a tour.

Matera's outings are excellent too, from the trulli of Alberobello and the white towns of the Valle d'Itria to Castel del Monte, ghostly Craco and Castelmezzano among the peaks. Almost all of them need a hire car.

Neither city is built for children, but Florence is the easier of the two. Climbing the dome, the secret-passage tours at Palazzo Vecchio, the globes at the Museo Galileo and the Boboli Gardens all give children something hands-on, and the Pinocchio park at Collodi is about an hour away.

In Matera, older children enjoy the caves, the cistern and the gorge. But the steep stone steps of the Sassi rule out pushchairs, there is little shade, and nothing is aimed at families. If you have a car, the sandy Ionian beaches are a real plus.

Florence's centre is flat and compact, and the main sights are about twenty minutes apart on foot. Trams run to the airport, and Santa Maria Novella station sits in the middle of town for rail day trips.

Matera is walkable too, but you reach the Sassi by steep stairways, and leaving town is the hard part. The town is off the national rail network, the narrow-gauge line to Bari is slow and buses are sparse. In Florence a car is a burden, while in Matera it is close to essential.

Florence is a real shopping city. It has leather workshops and the San Lorenzo stalls, marbled paper, goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio, Oltrarno artisans and the fashion houses of Via de' Tornabuoni. It pays to look closely, as some of the leather is mass-produced.

Matera has a few souvenir workshops in the Sassi selling cuccù whistles, tufa carvings and ceramics, plus ordinary high-street shops on Via del Corso. The best things to take home are edible: dried peppers, local pasta and Aglianico.

Florence is the dearer of the two, and the gap shows most in where you sleep and what you see. The art you came for sits behind admission fees, and central rooms stay expensive from spring to autumn. Sleeping across the Arno or near the station, or coming in winter, cuts the bill more than anything else. Street stalls and simple trattorias then keep the daily spend on food reasonable.

In Matera the biggest cost is one you choose, a night in a cave room in the Sassi, and guesthouses in the newer town cost much less only a short walk away. Meals are cheaper than in Florence and the sights charge little. The one cost Florence spares you is transport: its day trips run by rail, while Matera's beaches and outings mean paying for a hire car.

Florence, where opera was born around 1600, has a proper season. The Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino has its own orchestra and stages opera and ballet, the Maggio Musicale festival runs in spring, and the Pergola puts on theatre, though almost always in Italian.

Matera offers little beyond conservatory concerts, a summer jazz festival and open-air events set against the Sassi. Its one big night is the Festa della Bruna, with its procession and the papier-mâché float torn apart at the end.

Neither city has much spa culture within its own streets, so the difference is in what lies nearby. From Florence, the thermal halls of Montecatini Terme are under an hour by train, and the sulphur pools of Bagno Vignoni and Saturnia or a farm stay in the hills make a longer escape.

Matera has no bathing tradition and no spa town nearby to match those. What it has is cave hotel spas with pools cut into the rock, quiet mornings in the Sassi, and evenings watching dusk fall over the gorge, which feel calmer than Florence's centre in high season.