Florence or Siena?

Neither city has a beach, and in both a swim means a hotel pool. The difference is the coast you would head for. From Florence the train runs to the sandy, lounger-lined Versilia around Viareggio. From Siena you need a car for the quieter Maremma shore at Castiglione della Pescaia or Follonica. Either way it takes a full day, so if the sea matters, book a few nights on the coast.

Florence eats better and more widely. Lampredotto carts, bistecca in Oltrarno trattorie, the Mercato Centrale and Sant'Ambrogio market, a fine-dining tier and gelato taken seriously all give it more range than Siena.

Siena's strength is its own tradition: hand-rolled pici, cinta senese pork, wild boar and the bakeries' panforte and ricciarelli. It also sits between Chianti Classico and the Brunello and Vino Nobile country, so the wine by the glass is excellent. Beyond the Sienese table, though, there is little choice.

Florence has the deeper collections. Brunelleschi's dome, Botticelli and Leonardo at the Uffizi, the David, the Bargello's sculpture and the San Marco frescoes can fill a week, though the big museums need booking and the summer queues are long.

Siena gives you the Middle Ages instead, and in a more complete form. The Campo, Lorenzetti's Good and Bad Government frescoes, the inlaid floor of the Duomo and Duccio's Maestà are covered well in two or three days, and the seventeen contrade give the town a living identity that sightseeing alone does not explain.

Neither is a club town, but Florence has more going on after dinner. Piazza Santo Spirito fills with people drinking outdoors, Sant'Ambrogio draws locals, the student pubs stay loud and summer brings bars along the Arno.

Siena is mostly quiet before midnight: a glass of wine on the Campo, a few student bars and an evening walk. The exception is Palio time, when the contrade dinners keep the streets full late into the night.

Siena is closer to the landscape that people picture when they think of Tuscany. The bare clay hills of the Crete Senesi and the UNESCO-listed Val d'Orcia are on its doorstep, and the white gravel strade bianche start at the edge of town, which makes it a real cycling base. The Via Francigena and the Montagnola woods are there for walkers.

Florence's green escapes are gentler and closer in: the olive terraces of Fiesole, the paths of Monte Morello and the Chianti lanes. For something wilder it can reach the Casentino forests and the Apuan Alps.

Both sit in the heart of Tuscany and you will not run out of outings from either. Florence's advantage is the railway. Pisa, Lucca and Bologna are easy by train, and Bologna is under forty minutes away.

Siena is closer to the south: Montalcino's cellars, Pienza, Montepulciano and the abbeys of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Sant'Antimo and San Galgano. Most of those really need a car.

Florence has a slight edge with children because it has more hands-on things to do: the secret passages of Palazzo Vecchio, the globes at the Museo Galileo, the dome climb and the open space of the Boboli. The Pinocchio park at Collodi is about an hour away.

Siena has the tower climb and the contrada drummers, which older children enjoy, but nothing is built for them, and its steep streets are hard work with a pushchair. Families there often stay at a country farmhouse with a pool and come into town for half days.

Both centres are best on foot, but Florence is the easier of the two. It is flat, its main sights are within about twenty minutes of each other, trams run to the airport, and Santa Maria Novella station sits right in the centre.

Siena stands on three ridges, so walking means climbs and stepped lanes. The station is down in the valley, reached by escalators, and regional trains are slow, so buses are the better link to Florence. A car parked outside the walls is close to essential for the countryside.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Florence is a craft and fashion city: leather from market stalls and workshops, marbled paper, goldsmiths on the Ponte Vecchio, gilders in the Oltrarno, antiques on Via Maggio and luxury houses on Via de' Tornabuoni.

Siena's shopping is modest. Banchi di Sopra has Italian clothing and shoe shops, and the souvenirs worth taking home are majolica, contrada flags, pecorino and panforte. The weekly market by the Fortezza Medicea is the liveliest it gets.

Siena is a little easier on the budget, though neither city is cheap. Its osteria lunches are good value, and an agriturismo or a room in a nearby town costs less than one inside the walls, except around the Palio, when room prices jump.

Florence's central hotels and museum fees add up faster. Street-stall lampredotto, market counters and a room across the river or near the station help a lot.

Florence has the bigger stage. Opera more or less began here, the Maggio Musicale company has its own orchestra and puts on opera and ballet through the season, and its spring festival is one of Europe's oldest.

Siena's music comes from its schools. The Accademia Chigiana holds summer concerts in palaces, and Siena Jazz brings in teachers and students. It is a good programme for a town of its size, but for opera you would go to Florence.

Siena is closer to the hot springs. Rapolano Terme is about half an hour away, and Bagno Vignoni, the free limestone pools of Bagni San Filippo and Petriolo's sulphur river are all within reach, which makes thermal days an easy part of a stay.

From Florence, the handiest option is the grand old spa town of Montecatini Terme by train, while the outdoor pools of the south mean a long day or a night away. Inside the city, calm comes mainly from the Boboli and Bardini gardens.