Lucca or Lyon?

Lucca wins easily here. The wide, gently shelving sands of the Versilia coast begin at Viareggio, a short train ride away. A morning among the churches can end with an afternoon swim, either at a neat beach club or in the wilder dunes of the Lecciona.

Lyon has nothing comparable. The bathing lake at Miribel-Jonage will do for a hot afternoon, and the Rhône quays are for sunbathing only. Real swimming means the Alpine lakes at Annecy or Le Bourget, which take a full day rather than fitting into a city stay.

Lyon is the stronger place to eat, by some distance. Its bouchons serve hearty local dishes, and the legacy of the Mères lyonnaises and the chefs who followed them gives it serious fine dining too. Les Halles Paul Bocuse and the Saône markets are good for browsing, and Beaujolais and northern Rhône wines are close at hand.

Lucca eats well but plainly, with farro soup, tordelli, cecina and buccellato served in family trattorias inside the walls. This is honest country cooking, but the menus start to repeat after a few days. Lyon can fill a week of meals without doing that.

Lucca's appeal is the whole town taken as one piece. It has complete Renaissance walls, carved Romanesque façades such as San Michele in Foro, the oval Piazza dell'Anfiteatro and towers to climb. Two calm days are enough to see it well.

Lyon offers more depth and range. The Roman theatres on Fourvière, the Renaissance lanes and traboules of Vieux Lyon, the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Musée des Confluences cover two thousand years of history. They need several full days, so Lyon rewards a longer stay and a taste for museums.

Night owls should choose Lyon. A large student population keeps the wine and cocktail bars of the Presqu'île busy, and pubs fill Vieux Lyon. The barges on the Rhône quays turn into bars and clubs, and there is a serious electronic music scene behind them.

In Lucca, an evening means an aperitivo in a piazza, a long dinner and a stroll on the walls, and the centre is quiet by midnight. In summer, dancing means a late trip out to the Versilia coast.

The two are fairly even, but the landscapes differ. Lucca has the more dramatic country within reach: the marble-scarred peaks of the Apuan Alps about an hour north, the chestnut woods of the Garfagnana and the reed beds around Lake Massaciuccoli. Closer to home, the tree-lined walls are the everyday loop for running and cycling.

Lyon's outdoors is more urban and built around its rivers, with car-free quays along the Rhône and the large Parc de la Tête d'Or. Beyond the city lie the gentle Monts d'Or and the Beaujolais hills. The limestone massifs of Chartreuse and Vercors are further out and best reached by car.

Lucca is the better base. Pisa is half an hour away by train and Florence a little over an hour. Pistoia, Montecatini, the Lucca villas, Pietrasanta and the coast are all close, so a week can include a different well-known place each day.

Lyon is a good base too, but its outings lean towards wine country and smaller old towns: Roman Vienne, medieval Pérouges, the Beaujolais villages and Burgundy. Annecy and Geneva are at the far edge of a day out.

Both cities are easy with children, in different ways. Lucca's centre is small, flat and mostly free of traffic, and a family bike ride on the walls is the classic outing. Pinocchio Park at Collodi and the beach are nearby, though the town itself has little made for children.

Lyon offers a little more within the city. The Parc de la Tête d'Or has a free zoo, pedalos and pony rides, the Musée des Confluences has dinosaurs, and there are Guignol puppet shows and funiculars to ride. Its stepped lanes on the hills are hard going with a pushchair.

Lucca is a town you cross on foot or by bike, while Lyon is a city you cross by metro and tram. Inside Lucca's walls almost every street is closed to ordinary traffic, bikes can be hired near every gate, and the station just beyond the southern walls has regular trains to Pisa, Viareggio and Florence. The countryside is harder going: buses to the villas and the Garfagnana villages are sparse, so a car helps on those days.

Lyon's flat Presqu'île is pleasant to walk. Beyond it, four metro lines, trams, buses and the funiculars up Fourvière all share one ticket, and there is also bike-share on the river paths and a tram to the airport. The steep hills and small metro mean some trips involve a climb or a change, but you never need a car in the city.

Lyon offers more choice. There are chains along the rue de la République, luxury labels around Place des Jacobins and a large mall at Part-Dieu. It also has silk from its weaving past and designer workshops on Croix-Rousse.

Shopping in Lucca is smaller and more personal. Via Fillungo has its old shopfronts, the delicatessens sell olive oil, farro and buccellato, and the monthly antiques market around the cathedral is the real reason to shop there.

Costs are close. Lucca is cheaper than Florence and Lyon is cheaper than Paris, but neither city is cheap. In Lucca, the free walls and churches and the fair trattoria prices help. Beds inside the walls are scarce in summer, though, and staying just outside saves money.

In Lyon, lunch is the best value, because the bouchon set menus are generous, and the zoo is free. Hotels are reasonable for most of the year but become scarce during trade fairs and the Fête des Lumières.

Lyon has the fuller stage. It has the Opéra de Lyon, the national orchestra and the grand Théâtre des Célestins, and above all dance, at the Maison de la Danse and the Biennale. In summer, the Nuits de Fourvière festival puts on shows in the Roman theatres.

Lucca's music belongs to Puccini. There are short recitals of his arias in a central church for most of the year, a season at the Teatro del Giglio, summer opera by the lake at Torre del Lago and big outdoor concerts in Piazza Napoleone in July. It is charming but narrower.

Lucca has the edge for a spa day. Montecatini's belle époque baths are half an hour away by train, Monsummano has warm pools inside a cave, and Bagni di Lucca has steam grottoes in the Serchio valley. All of this comes on top of the calm of a car-free town.

Lyon has hammams, hotel spas and a large open-air pool on the Rhône quays. The nearest real thermal bathing is at Aix-les-Bains, about an hour and a half away. Rest in Lyon comes more from long lunches and the Parc de la Tête d'Or than from the water.