La Spezia or Rome?

La Spezia has the better swimming, but you still have to travel to reach it. Buses to Lerici and San Terenzo bring sheltered sand and pebble, the coves at Fiascherino and Tellaro lie under olive terraces, and the rocks of Portovenere and Palmaria have very clear water. A short train ride up the coast reaches Monterosso's sandy beach.

Rome's sea is Ostia, half an hour by train, with long beaches of dark volcanic sand lined with paid lidos and water that is rarely clear. Pretty coves like Sperlonga need a much longer trip, so from Rome the beach is an escape from the heat rather than a pleasure in itself.

Rome is the stronger eating destination by a wide margin. Its cuisine is all its own: the four classic pastas, fried artichokes in the old Ghetto, offal dishes in Testaccio, pizza al taglio and supplì on the street, and a market culture that rewards anyone who walks away from the menus around the big sights.

La Spezia's cooking is simpler Ligurian food: farinata from wood ovens, mesciua soup, pesto on trofie and testaroli, and rope-grown mussels from the gulf. The choice is narrow and fine dining is scarce. Its glass is the better one, though, with crisp Cinque Terre and Colli di Luni whites and sweet Sciacchetrà, where Rome has little more than Frascati.

There is hardly a contest here. Rome holds layer on layer of history, from the Colosseum, the Palatine and the Pantheon to early Christian mosaics, Bernini's piazzas and Caravaggios in side chapels, and the Vatican Museums alone could take a full day.

La Spezia is a nineteenth-century naval town of arcaded streets and Liberty facades with no medieval core. The Museo Amedeo Lia's early Italian paintings and the Lunigiana stele statues in Castello San Giorgio are worth a visit, but they fill a day or two, and the region's real history lies out along the coast.

Rome gives you far more to do after dark. Trastevere's lanes stay crowded with wine bars until late, Monti has small cocktail bars, San Lorenzo is cheap and studenty, and Pigneto draws an arty crowd, though clubbing in Testaccio and Ostiense is limited.

La Spezia's evening is the aperitivo on Via del Prione or the seafront, moving to the waterfront at Lerici in summer, and then the town goes quiet. Most visitors here are saving their energy for the trails the next morning.

For landscape, La Spezia is the obvious choice. Terraced vineyards fall into the sea along the Cinque Terre national park, the Sentiero Azzurro and the higher ridge paths link the villages, and Palmaria and the Montemarcello promontory give quieter walks nearby. Kayaking and diving in the gulf and serious hiking in the Apuan Alps add range.

Rome's green spaces are its villa parks and the Appian Way, where a ride past tombs and aqueduct arches is a real highlight. For woods and lakes you head out to the Alban Hills, and the mountains of the Apennines are about ninety minutes away.

Both are superb bases, and what differs is what lies around them. From La Spezia the outings are about coast and scenery: the Cinque Terre villages minutes away by train, the painted harbour of Portovenere, walled Sarzana, Carrara's quarries, and Pisa and Lucca about an hour off.

From Rome the trips are mostly into history: the excavated port of Ostia Antica, Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este at Tivoli, Etruscan tombs at Tarquinia and Cerveteri, and cliff-top Orvieto. With high-speed trains, Florence and Naples are easy day trips.

Neither city is built around children, and they fall short in different ways. La Spezia's best family days are on the water, with boat trips round Portovenere and shallow beaches at San Terenzo, and its flat centre is easy with a pushchair. It has no zoo or aquarium, though, and the steep villages and crowded trains suit older children best.

Rome has more to entertain: gladiators, catacombs, the Bioparco and rowing boats in Villa Borghese, and gelato every day. Against that come long queues, uneven cobbles and summer heat, so sightseeing with small children is tiring.

La Spezia is the easier place to get around. The station, market, museums and seafront are a short flat walk apart, and coastal trains, gulf buses and seasonal ferries run straight to the villages, though they fill up in summer.

In Rome the walk from the Colosseum to the Pantheon and over to Trastevere is a pleasure in itself, but cobbles, scooters and heat wear you down. The metro barely reaches the historic core, and buses and trams get stuck in traffic.

Rome is much better for shopping. The big Italian fashion houses line Via Condotti and the streets around the Spanish Steps, Monti has independent designers and vintage shops, and Via dei Coronari and Via Margutta keep their antique dealers and artisan workshops, with Porta Portese's flea market on Sundays.

La Spezia offers chain stores and a few boutiques on Via del Prione and Corso Cavour. What is worth taking home is edible: pesto, olive oil, Sciacchetrà and anchovies.

La Spezia is the cheaper stay, and that is why so many people use it as a base. Rooms cost clearly less than in the Cinque Terre villages, trains are inexpensive, and farinata and trattoria meals are fair value. Trail passes, boat trips and paid beaches still add up in summer.

In Rome, accommodation is the big cost: central rooms are small and expensive, and the Vatican, Colosseum and Borghese all charge substantial entry fees. Free drinking fountains, churches full of art and standing espresso help keep daily spending down.

Rome has a real performing arts scene, and La Spezia does not. The Teatro dell'Opera stages opera and ballet in winter and moves outdoors to the Baths of Caracalla in summer, Santa Cecilia's orchestra plays at Renzo Piano's Auditorium, and church concerts and jazz clubs fill out the calendar.

La Spezia has the Teatro Civico's season and a long-established summer jazz festival with concerts in castle courtyards around the gulf. For most of the year little is on, and for opera you have to go to Genoa or Pisa.

For thermal water you have to leave both cities, and the choice is far wider from Rome. From La Spezia, apart from hotel spas, the only option is the small baths at Equi Terme in the Lunigiana valley, about an hour inland. The town's strength is its slow pace: quiet off-season evenings on the seafront, a long lunch in Tellaro and the calm of Palmaria.

Rome has hammam-style day spas as well as hotel spas. The large sulphurous pools at Bagni di Tivoli are just outside the city, and around Viterbo, about ninety minutes north, there are free open-air hot springs. The centre is loud with scooters and crowds, so for quiet you go to the villa gardens or up the Aventine.