Florence or Taormina?

Here Taormina wins easily. From the town a cable car runs down to Mazzarò and the cove at Isola Bella, where the water is clear enough for snorkelling, and Giardini Naxos and Letojanni have longer beaches a short bus ride away. The beaches below the town are narrow pebble strips that fill up in high summer, but you can swim and still be back up on the terrace for dinner.

Florence lies inland in the Arno valley. Reaching the sandy Versilia coast takes a long day, so in the heat you are left with a hotel pool or one of the public pools on the edge of the city.

Florence gives you more to eat and a wider choice. Its cooking is the Tuscan kind: bistecca, ribollita and tripe rolls from street carts, with the Mercato Centrale and Sant'Ambrogio market to explore and Chianti reds poured by the glass. The good trattorie of the Oltrarno mean you can eat well every night of a long stay.

Taormina's food is distinctively Sicilian: granita and brioche for breakfast, swordfish and raw prawns, cannoli, and Etna wines on every list. The town is small, though, and the tourist menus along Corso Umberto leave few everyday places worth seeking out, so the better meals are often down in Giardini Naxos.

Florence can fill a week with great art, while Taormina's sights fit into a day. Beyond the famous galleries, Florence has Brunelleschi's dome, the Medici Chapels, the tombs of Santa Croce and the frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel, all within walking distance of each other. In summer the big museums need booking ahead.

Taormina has one sight of real stature, the Greek theatre, with Etna framed behind its stage. Add the Arab-Norman palaces along the Corso and you have one unhurried day of sightseeing. There are no major museums, so for more history you go to Syracuse.

Neither town is a place for clubbing, but Florence has more going on after dark. Its large student population fills the bars around Piazza Santo Spirito and Sant'Ambrogio, and in summer outdoor bars open along the Arno.

Taormina's evenings are quieter and older in mood, with aperitivo in Piazza IX Aprile, a stroll along the Corso and piano bars above the sea. A few beach clubs stay open late in August, and out of season the town is quiet soon after dinner.

Taormina has the more dramatic landscape. Within an hour you can walk the Silvestri craters on Etna, go up towards the summit with a guide or ski its slopes in winter. The basalt gorges of the Alcantara are closer still, and the marine reserve at Isola Bella is good for diving and kayaking.

Florence's countryside is gentle and farmed: olive terraces at Fiesole, cypress lanes in Chianti, and the Casentino forests further out. It is lovely for walking and cycling, but it has nothing to match a live volcano.

Both make good bases, but Florence's choice is hard to match. Siena, Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano and the Chianti villages are all within easy reach, Bologna is a short high-speed train ride away, and Santa Maria Novella station sits right in the centre.

Taormina's best day out is Syracuse and Ortigia, about two hours south, with baroque Catania and Noto as other strong options. Many of the nearer trips are slower ones, such as hill villages like Savoca or cellar visits on Etna, which you reach more easily by car or tour than by train.

With children the two are close, and neither is built for them. Florence keeps children busy by letting them climb the dome, take the secret-passage tours of Palazzo Vecchio and run around the Boboli Gardens, while its downsides are summer crowds and heat.

Taormina's appeal is the cable car, snorkelling and a trip up Etna for older children, but the town's steps and steep lanes are hard going with a pushchair. Families with toddlers usually do better staying in Giardini Naxos, where the beaches are sandier and the streets flatter.

Florence is easier to get around. Its main sights are within about twenty minutes of each other on flat ground, trams run to the airport, and the central station puts most day trips within reach without a car.

Taormina's centre is also walkable but sits on a slope, so every outing involves stairs. The railway station is down by the sea, and Etna and the inland villages realistically need a tour or a hired car.

Florence is much the better place to shop. Leather workshops, marbled paper, the goldsmiths of the Ponte Vecchio and the gilders and restorers of the Oltrarno carry on long-established trades, and Via de' Tornabuoni has the Italian fashion houses.

Taormina's shopping is a single street, Corso Umberto, with coral, cameos, lace and Caltagirone ceramics. Pistachio cream and Etna wine make good things to take home, but for a wider range you have to go to Catania.

Both are among the dearer places to stay in Italy, and both get much cheaper if you stay a short distance away. In Florence you save by staying across the river or near the station, eating at market counters and walking everywhere. Museum tickets are the cost that keeps adding up.

In Taormina the grand sea-view hotels set the price level. Staying down in Giardini Naxos or Letojanni and coming up for the evening makes the biggest difference, and granita and bakery snacks stay cheap whatever the season.

Florence has a full season to offer. Opera was born here, the Teatro del Maggio Musicale has its own orchestra and ballet, and the Maggio Musicale is one of Europe's oldest music festivals.

Taormina's stage is a single, extraordinary one: the Greek theatre on summer nights, with concerts, opera and pop acts against the backdrop of Etna. Outside summer there is little to see, and Catania's Teatro Massimo Bellini is the nearest opera house.

The two are about level here, and neither has its own bathing tradition. Florence's restful moments come from early mornings in the Boboli and Bardini gardens, while its real spa options lie outside the city, at Montecatini Terme or the sulphur pools of Saturnia.

Taormina relaxes you through its setting, with hotel spas on terraces above the sea, volcanic-mud treatments and long lunches in view of Etna. That calm disappears in August, when the Corso fills with day-trippers.