La Spezia or Pisa?

Neither city has a beach in town, and both coasts are largely given over to paid bathing establishments, but the swimming is quite different. From La Spezia you reach small, often pebbly beaches at Lerici and San Terenzo, coves under olive terraces at Tellaro, and very clear rocky water at Portovenere and Palmaria, with Monterosso's sand further up the line.

Pisa's coast, about 12km away, has long, wide sandy beaches at Tirrenia and Calambrone, backed by pine woods and shallow enough for easy paddling, though the water near the Arno mouth is rarely very clear. Choose La Spezia for clear water and rocks, Pisa for room to spread out on the sand.

Both cities eat simply and well, and both bake a thin chickpea flatbread in wood ovens: farinata in La Spezia, cecina in Pisa. Beyond that, La Spezia cooks from the sea and Pisa from the land. La Spezia's food is Ligurian, with pesto on trofie and testaroli, mussels farmed off Portovenere, Monterosso anchovies and crisp Cinque Terre whites.

Pisa cooks Tuscan, with ribollita, wild boar and salt cod, and its best eating is in the trattorias around the Piazza delle Vettovaglie market, where students keep prices honest. Neither has much fine dining. In Pisa, skip the menus around the tower. In La Spezia, prices and quality in town are steadier than in the Cinque Terre villages.

Pisa has far more to see. The Piazza dei Miracoli alone, with its cathedral, baptistery, Leaning Tower and Camposanto, outweighs anything in La Spezia. Beyond it are Vasari's palace on Piazza dei Cavalieri, Santa Maria della Spina on the river, the medieval art of the San Matteo museum and the old palazzi along the Lungarni.

La Spezia is a nineteenth-century naval town of arcaded streets and Liberty-style facades, with no medieval core. The early Italian paintings of the Museo Amedeo Lia, the naval museum and the prehistoric stele statues in Castello San Giorgio make a rewarding day, but most of the region's history lies out along the coast.

Neither is a place to come for going out, but Pisa has more of an evening. During term, students fill the small squares around the old market past midnight, and Borgo Stretto and the riverbanks draw the aperitivo crowd. In La Spezia the evening is a spritz on Via del Prione, around Piazza Verdi or, in summer, on the Lerici waterfront, and then it ends early, with most visitors resting for the next morning's walk.

La Spezia sits right by the landscape most visitors come to this coast for. The terraced cliffs and footpaths of the Cinque Terre national park, from the Sentiero Azzurro to the quieter ridge path, begin minutes away. Palmaria's forts and sea caves, the Montemarcello promontory, and kayaking and diving in the gulf are closer still.

Pisa's outdoors is gentler. San Rossore park has pine forest, wetland and dunes for cycling, riding and spotting fallow deer, Lake Massaciuccoli is good for birdwatching, and Monte Pisano has paths through olive terraces. Both cities reach the Apuan Alps for serious hiking.

Both make outstanding bases, and the difference is mainly in which way you travel. From La Spezia, the Cinque Terre is minutes away by coastal train, Portovenere is a short boat ride, Lerici, Sarzana and Luni are around the gulf, and the Riviera as far as Portofino and Genoa makes an easy day.

Pisa looks inland as well as along the coast. Lucca is under half an hour away, Florence about an hour, Volterra and San Gimignano are reachable by car, and Siena and Chianti are within two hours. The Cinque Terre is still a little over an hour away. Pick La Spezia for the Ligurian coast, Pisa for Tuscany.

Both are easy places to bring children, and neither has much built for them, so the difference is in how a family spends its days. From La Spezia the best days are on the water: a boat round Portovenere and Palmaria, then the shallow, sheltered beaches at San Terenzo and Lerici. The catch is that the area's big draw, the cliff villages and their trails, means stairs, crowded carriages and long walks that small legs struggle with.

Pisa keeps its one great sight a short, level walk away, with a lawn beside the tower where children can let off steam. The other days go to the long, shallow sand at Tirrenia and Calambrone or to bikes and horses in San Rossore park. The tower climb is only for older children, and the cathedral square is hot and crowded in midsummer. With toddlers, Pisa is the simpler base. With older children who can manage the coast paths, La Spezia gives you more to do.

Both have flat centres you can walk, but Pisa is simpler to arrive in and to leave for day trips. The airport is unusually close and an automatic shuttle train links it to the station, which is one of the main rail hubs of western Tuscany. Bikes suit the level streets.

La Spezia works well as a hub too, with coastal trains through the Cinque Terre, buses to Portovenere and Lerici, and ferries round the gulf from spring to autumn. Its weak point is summer, when those trains and the village platforms are packed. In neither city is a car much help for the main sights.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and both offer everyday Italian high streets. Pisa adds the smarter shops and old pastry shops under the arcades of Borgo Stretto and a monthly antiques market by the river, and Florence and Lucca are close for anything more serious. La Spezia's Via del Prione is mostly chains and shoe shops, so its best buys are edible: pesto, olive oil, Sciacchetrà and anchovies.

Both are mid-priced. In Pisa the costs that stand out are the tower climb and the cafés next to the monuments, while the student trattorias and the walkable centre keep daily spending low. In La Spezia, rooms cost noticeably less than in the Cinque Terre villages, but trail passes, boat trips and bathing establishments add up. In both, spring and autumn are easier on the budget than high summer.

Pisa has more on stage thanks to the Teatro Verdi, a horseshoe-shaped nineteenth-century opera house with opera, concerts and ballet from autumn to spring, plus university chamber music. La Spezia's Teatro Civico hosts drama and touring shows, and the area comes alive in summer with a long-established jazz festival and open-air concerts in piazzas and castle courtyards. For opera, people in La Spezia go to Pisa or Genoa.

Pisa has the edge here because of its thermal springs. San Giuliano Terme, just outside the city, has a spa in an 18th-century bath palace on waters used since Roman times, and Casciana Terme has a larger public thermal pool. La Spezia's nearest thermal baths are the small ones at Equi Terme, an hour inland, so relaxing there means a long lunch in Tellaro or the quiet of Palmaria outside the summer season.