La Spezia or Taormina?

Neither town has a beach on its doorstep, but Taormina's are closer and easier to enjoy. The cable car runs straight down to Mazzarò and the cove facing Isola Bella, where the water is clear enough for snorkelling, and Giardini Naxos and Letojanni have longer stretches of sand nearby. The Ionian also stays a little warmer late in the summer.

From La Spezia, a swim means a bus to San Terenzo or Lerici, a boat to Portovenere and Palmaria, or a train to Monterosso. The water is clear and the coves are pretty, but the beach is a day out rather than part of every morning.

The two kitchens are about equally good and neither offers much range. In La Spezia you eat farinata from wood ovens, mesciua soup, stuffed mussels from the gulf and pesto on testaroli, with crisp Cinque Terre whites. Prices are steady, as you would expect in a working port town.

Taormina's food is Sicilian and sweeter: granita and brioche for breakfast, then swordfish, pasta alla Norma and cannoli, with Etna reds to drink. It also has a refined top tier of restaurants with sea views, which La Spezia lacks, though the tourist menus on the main street mean you have to choose with care.

Neither is a heritage city, and each fills a day or two, but they offer different things. La Spezia's interest is mostly indoors: early Italian paintings and ivories at the Museo Amedeo Lia, the naval museum, and the Lunigiana stele statues in Castello San Giorgio, all in a nineteenth-century grid of arcaded streets.

Taormina has no major museum but has the more memorable single sight, the Greek theatre framing Etna. Corso Umberto adds a walk past medieval buildings with Arab, Norman and Catalan touches.

Both are aperitivo towns that go quiet after dinner, and neither has a club scene. La Spezia's evenings are local and early, with a spritz on Via del Prione and most visitors in bed before a morning on the trails. Taormina's are dressier and slower, with piano bars on terraces over the sea and, in summer, a few late lounge bars at Mazzarò, mostly for couples and older visitors.

Both have outstanding landscapes close by, but of very different kinds. Around La Spezia it is coastal walking: the Cinque Terre paths through terraced vines, the loop round Palmaria, the pinewoods of Montemarcello and, an hour inland, the marble peaks of the Apuan Alps.

From Taormina the main draw is Etna. You can walk over lava flows and the Silvestri craters, go towards the summit with a guide or ski there in winter, and the basalt gorges of the Alcantara are closer still. Both have good kayaking and diving, and in both, the summer heat makes spring and autumn the time to hike.

La Spezia is the better base, mostly because everything is so close. The five Cinque Terre villages are minutes away by train, Portovenere and Lerici are a short boat or bus ride, and Pisa and Lucca are about an hour off, so a week passes without a long journey.

Taormina's outings are excellent but further apart. Catania is about an hour away, Syracuse and Ortigia about two, and Noto needs an early start. The hill villages of Castelmola, Savoca and Forza d'Agrò make shorter, gentler trips.

La Spezia is the easier of the two with children, largely because it is flat. Pushchairs manage the centre and the seafront gardens, and the sheltered, shallow beaches at San Terenzo and Lerici suit small swimmers. Neither town has a zoo, an aquarium or a theme park.

Taormina is built on steps, its nearest beaches are pebbly and many hotels are aimed at couples, so families with toddlers often stay down in Giardini Naxos. Its strengths suit school-age children: snorkelling at Isola Bella and a trip up Etna to the craters.

La Spezia is a true transport hub. The centre is flat and easy to walk, coastal trains run through the Cinque Terre to Genoa, inland lines go to Pisa and Florence, and buses and seasonal ferries cover the gulf. Only the packed summer trains let it down.

Taormina is small and largely pedestrian but steep, with stairways on every outing and the station down by the sea. The cable car and buses cover the coast nearby, but Etna and the inland villages realistically need a tour or a hired car.

Neither is a place to go shopping, and they differ mainly in what they sell. La Spezia has everyday provincial shops, with chains and shoe shops on Via del Prione and the Piazza Cavour market, and the things worth taking home are pesto, olive oil and Sciacchetrà. Taormina's Corso Umberto makes a nicer browse, with coral and cameos, linen and lace, Caltagirone majolica and moor's-head vases, though most of it is aimed at visitors.

La Spezia is the cheaper base by a clear margin. Its rooms cost less than those in the Cinque Terre villages, everyday eating on farinata, focaccia and trattoria cooking is fair, and the coastal trains are inexpensive. Here the extras are what add up: trail passes for the national park, boat trips round the gulf and a lounger at a paid bathing establishment.

In Taormina your room is the big cost. A night there runs well above a similar one in La Spezia, because sea-view grand hotels set the level and few mid-range rooms are left in summer. A meal on Corso Umberto also costs more than a trattoria lunch in La Spezia, although granita, bakery snacks and buses stay cheap. Both are easier on the budget in spring and autumn. In Taormina you can also save by sleeping down the coast in Giardini Naxos and coming up for the evening.

Both are quiet outside summer, so what matters is what summer brings. La Spezia has the Teatro Civico's season, a long-established jazz festival and open-air concerts in piazzas and castle courtyards around the gulf.

Taormina has the more striking stage: concerts, opera, ballet and international pop acts in the Greek theatre with Etna behind, plus its long-running film festival. For opera out of season, from La Spezia you go to Genoa or Pisa, and from Taormina to Catania.

Taormina is the better place to unwind properly. Its large hotels have good spas, often with pools on terraces above the sea and treatments using volcanic mud, citrus and almond. In May, June and late September the town slows to long lunches and evenings watching Etna change colour.

La Spezia has no spa tradition of its own, and the nearest thermal baths are the small ones at Equi Terme, an hour inland. Its calm comes from the seafront out of season, a long lunch in Tellaro or a quiet afternoon on Palmaria.