La Spezia or Monaco?

Neither town is built around a beach, but Monaco has the easier swim. Larvotto is a calm, groomed strip at the end of a walk through town, and Cap d'Ail's coves are only minutes beyond the French border.

In La Spezia every swim means a bus, boat or train. The trips are rewarding: the sheltered sand at San Terenzo and Lerici, the clear rocky water off Palmaria, or Monterosso's long beach. Expect pebbles and paid bathing establishments on both coasts.

The two are evenly matched, but they eat at opposite ends of the scale. La Spezia is everyday Ligurian food: farinata from wood ovens, mesciua, trofie with pesto and the gulf's rope-grown mussels, at steady prices but with little fine dining.

Monaco is the reverse. Starred and grand hotel dining rooms set the tone, and you dress for dinner. Cheap, casual meals are hard to find beyond the barbagiuan and socca at the Condamine market.

Monaco has more to see in a small space. The Rock holds the palace and its changing of the guard, the cathedral with Grace Kelly's tomb and the Oceanographic Museum in its cliff-edge Belle Époque building, and Monte-Carlo adds the Casino and its gardens.

La Spezia's grid of arcaded naval-era streets has no medieval core. Its strengths are the early Italian paintings of the Museo Amedeo Lia and the strange Lunigiana stele statues in Castello San Giorgio. Most of its history lies along the coast rather than in town.

Monaco has the bigger night out, if a narrow one. It centres on the hotel bars around the Casino square and the clubs on the Larvotto seafront, with dress codes and champagne, and it peaks in summer and on Grand Prix weekend.

La Spezia's evenings are the aperitivo along Via del Prione and around Piazza Verdi, or the waterfront bars at Lerici in summer, and then bed before an early start on the trails.

This is La Spezia's strongest card. The Cinque Terre's vine and olive terraces drop straight into the sea, with the Sentiero Azzurro and the quieter ridge paths linking the villages. Palmaria and the pine woods of Montemarcello are close to town, and the Apuan Alps offer serious hiking an hour inland.

Monaco itself is almost all buildings, so its nature is the limestone backdrop: the view from Tête de Chien, the steep path to Èze and the coastal walks round Cap Martin. Both coasts have clear water for diving and paddling.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference lies in what you reach. From La Spezia the trips are Italian villages and old towns: the five Cinque Terre villages minutes away on the coastal train, Portovenere by bus or boat, walled Sarzana and the Roman ruins of Luni, with Pisa and Lucca about an hour away. Trains, buses and the seasonal gulf ferries cover nearly all of it.

Monaco looks along the French Riviera to Villefranche, Nice, Èze and Menton, and further out to art towns such as Antibes and Saint-Paul-de-Vence, with Sanremo and Dolceacqua just over the Italian border. Almost all of it can be reached by train or bus, so a car is rarely needed.

Monaco is the easier choice with young children. The Oceanographic Museum's aquarium with its sharks and turtles, Larvotto's gentle water and the free lifts and escalators that take the strain off the hills fill a couple of days well, though the restaurants are formal.

La Spezia has boat trips, shallow water at San Terenzo and the naval museum's torpedoes, but no aquarium or park of that kind. Its steep villages and crowded summer trains suit older children better.

Monaco is easier to get around. It is only about 3km from end to end, and its public lifts, escalators and little harbour ferry take care of the steep climbs once you know where they are.

La Spezia's flat centre is also easy to walk, and the town works well as a hub for trains, buses and gulf ferries. Its weak spot is summer, when the Cinque Terre trains and village platforms get packed. In both places a car is more trouble than it is worth.

Monaco offers more, but only at the top. The Carré d'Or around the Casino gardens packs fashion houses, jewellers and watchmakers into a stroll of a few minutes, and window-shopping there is part of the evening scene.

La Spezia's Via del Prione and Corso Cavour have ordinary chains and shoe shops. Its best buys are edible: pesto, olive oil, Sciacchetrà and Monterosso anchovies.

The gap here is huge. La Spezia is a middling Western European town for prices, with cheap trains and simple trattorias. Visitors stay there precisely because it costs less than the Cinque Terre villages, although trail passes and bathing establishments add up.

Monaco is priced for the very wealthy, from hotel rooms to a café coffee, and rates climb further on event weekends. The free things are the lifts, the gardens and walking the Rock.

Monaco has a serious stage for such a small place. There is opera in the Salle Garnier, where Massenet and Puccini works had premières, as well as an internationally known ballet company and philharmonic orchestra, and the Printemps des Arts in spring.

La Spezia's Teatro Civico runs a modest season of theatre and touring shows. Summer brings a long-running jazz festival and concerts in castle courtyards, but for opera you have to travel to Genoa or Pisa.

La Spezia gives you restful scenery but very little to book, so for a proper treatment day Monaco is far better equipped. Around La Spezia, unwinding means an unhurried lunch over the water in Tellaro or an afternoon on Palmaria once the summer visitors have gone. Beyond a hotel spa, the only thermal waters are the modest pools at Equi Terme, a drive into the Lunigiana hills.\n\nMonaco makes relaxation a polished routine. Its thalassotherapy centre beside the Casino continues the old seawater cures, with warm pools and a long list of treatments, and the grand hotels add well-equipped spas. Afterwards the Japanese Garden is a calm place to sit, though not in Grand Prix week.