Florence or Portofino?

Florence is inland, so the sea plays no part in an ordinary stay. The sandy Versilia beaches near Viareggio take a full day there and back, and in the heat most visitors cool off in a hotel or public pool instead.

Portofino is clearly better for swimming, though it has no real beach. People swim from the rock platforms and ladders on the lighthouse path, from the small bay at Paraggi, which is mostly paid beach clubs, and from pebble coves reached by boat, such as San Fruttuoso. The water is beautifully clear, but every spot is small and fills up in summer.

Florence is much the better place to eat. There is bistecca alla fiorentina and bread soups like ribollita, lampredotto from street carts, the Mercato Centrale and Sant'Ambrogio markets, and family trattorie in the Oltrarno, with Chianti poured by the glass.

Portofino offers good Ligurian dishes such as trofie with pesto and Recco's cheese focaccia. However, it has only a handful of harbour-front terraces where you pay for the yachts in the view, and no market or street food. People who care about eating head over to Camogli or Santa Margherita.

This is where the two differ most. Florence is one of the great art cities of the world. Its compact centre holds the Uffizi, Michelangelo's David, the Bargello's sculpture, the Duomo complex and the Pitti Palace, and quieter places like the frescoed cells of San Marco and the Brancacci Chapel can easily fill a week.

In Portofino the sight is the village itself: the painted houses around the harbour, the church of San Giorgio, Castello Brown and, around the point, the abbey of San Fruttuoso. A day covers it, and it suits people who come for the setting.

Neither is a party destination, but Florence has far more to do after dark. Evenings run from aperitivo to wine bars around Piazza Santo Spirito and Sant'Ambrogio, there are student pubs near the centre and summer bars along the Arno, although clubs are few.

Portofino's evening is a dressed-up aperitivo and dinner facing the yachts, and then it is over. There are no clubs and few late bars, and the village goes quiet early outside high summer. For a real night out you need Santa Margherita, Rapallo or Genoa.

Florence's countryside is gentle and farmed. There are olive terraces at Fiesole, cycling lanes lined with cypresses through Chianti, and the beech forests of the Casentino about an hour and a half away. It is lovely, but it is something you travel out to.

Portofino has more dramatic nature right on the doorstep. The headland is a regional park on land and a marine reserve offshore. Trails climb to the Semaforo Nuovo and drop to San Fruttuoso and Punta Chiappa past sea cliffs, with some exposed stretches on chains. Under water there are red coral walls and the bronze Christ of the Abyss for divers.

Both are good bases, but Florence is in a class of its own. Siena, Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano and the Chianti villages are all close, Bologna is under forty minutes by high-speed train, and you could fill a week without repeating yourself.

Portofino's outings are mostly along the coast, and getting there is part of the fun. Boats and buses run to Camogli, Santa Margherita and Rapallo, Genoa's medieval centre is less than an hour away, and summer ferries reach the Cinque Terre and Portovenere. Outside the ferry season you rely on the trains from Santa Margherita.

Neither is built for children, but Florence copes better. Children can climb the dome, take the secret-passage tours of Palazzo Vecchio, look at the globes in the Museo Galileo and run around the Boboli Gardens, and the Pinocchio park at Collodi makes a day out. The summer heat and crowds are the main drawbacks.

Portofino has boats, the walk up to the castle and swimming off the rocks, but it has no playgrounds, the sand is mostly in paid clubs and the steep steps are hard work with a pushchair. Families usually stay in Santa Margherita or Rapallo and make the trip to Genoa's aquarium.

On foot, Florence works far better. The Duomo, the Uffizi, the Accademia and the Pitti Palace are all within about twenty minutes' walk of each other. There is no metro, but trams link the station with the airport, and Santa Maria Novella sits in the centre for rail day trips. The cost is narrow pavements, packed main streets in summer, stone paving that wears out tired feet, and a restricted traffic zone that makes a car more trouble than help.

Inside Portofino nothing is far, but the climbs to the church, the castle and the lighthouse are steep. The hard part is getting in and out. One narrow, winding road runs about 5km from Santa Margherita, parking is very limited, and in summer the buses are packed and the road jams. From spring to autumn the ferries are the most pleasant way to arrive.

Florence is a real shopping city built on old crafts. You'll find leather workshops and the San Lorenzo stalls, goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio, gilders and framers in the Oltrarno, marbled paper, the fashion houses on Via de' Tornabuoni and antiques on Via Maggio.

Portofino has a few lanes of luxury boutiques and resort clothes for people coming off the yachts, plus some lace, ceramics and pesto. You can see it all in under an hour, so for markets or a longer browse go to Chiavari's arcades, Rapallo or Genoa.

Both are expensive, but Florence can be managed on a budget and Portofino largely can't. In Florence, street food, market lunches, cheap house wine and walking everywhere keep daily costs down, and staying across the river or visiting in winter brings the room price down.

Portofino ranks among the most expensive places to stay in Italy. Its few hotels are mostly luxury properties, and loungers, boat hire and parking all cost a lot. Walking and the bus are the only cheap things, which is why many people stay in Camogli or Santa Margherita and visit for the day.

An evening of music in Florence can be opera, ballet or an orchestral concert at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, in the city where opera was more or less born around 1600. In spring the Maggio Musicale festival, one of Europe's oldest, fills the calendar. Most visitors settle for chamber concerts in churches and palaces, which are pleasant but put on for tourists.

In Portofino the music is usually what plays in the background at the harbour bars. There is no theatre or regular venue, just the odd summer concert in the piazzetta or at the castle, so for opera you would have to go to Genoa's Teatro Carlo Felice.

The two are on a par here, but you find the calm in different places. In Florence the rest is mostly outside the city. Montecatini Terme's grand old spa halls are under an hour by train, the open-air sulphur pools at Bagno Vignoni and Saturnia are a longer trip away, and a farm stay in the hills is the classic way to slow down. The centre itself is crowded, apart from the gardens.

Portofino has only hotel spas, but the village itself becomes restful in the early morning, in the evening and outside high summer. That is when shaded paths and long lunches by the water give you the calm that the tour-boat crowds take away at midday.