Lucca or Monaco?

In Monaco the sea is part of the town. You can walk down to Larvotto's calm, clear water, swim off the rocky platforms or follow the coastal path to the coves at Cap d'Ail, and the longer beaches of Menton and Nice are a short train ride away.

Lucca has no sea of its own. The Versilia coast is a train ride away at Viareggio, with long sandy beaches that shelve gently and the wild dunes of the Lecciona. They are fine sands, but going to the beach from Lucca always means an afternoon trip rather than a swim before breakfast.

These two are about equal for eating, but in opposite registers. Lucca is all family trattorias, farro soup, tordelli and chestnut flour, reliable and fairly priced but narrow in range. Monaco leans to starred hotel dining rooms and harbour terraces where you dress for dinner, and its cheap local food is limited to barbagiuan and socca from the Condamine market.

Lucca gives the richer sightseeing. The town itself is the monument: intact Renaissance walls, a medieval street grid, the arcaded front of San Michele in Foro, San Frediano's mosaic and the oval piazza traced on a Roman amphitheatre.

Monaco's sights are compact and well kept, mostly the Prince's Palace, the cathedral and the Oceanographic Museum on the Rock, plus the Casino across the harbour. They impress for their setting, but there is less to discover once you have seen them.

Monaco has the livelier night, though it is a glossy one: hotel bars around the Casino, champagne in seafront clubs, and a harbour that turns into a party on Grand Prix weekend. Outside summer it goes to bed early, and casual pubs are scarce.

Lucca's evenings are an aperitivo in Piazza San Michele, dinner and a stroll on the walls, with a few student wine bars. Anyone who wants to dance has to go to the Versilia clubs and find a late ride back.

Lucca looks inland to the mountains, while Monaco looks down to the sea. From Lucca the sharp marble peaks and quarries of the Apuan Alps are about an hour away, with the chestnut and beech woods of the Garfagnana beyond them. Closer in, you can cycle the Serchio river paths or watch birds in the reed beds of Lake Massaciuccoli.

Monaco's outdoors is cliffs and clear water: the old mule path from Èze-sur-Mer up to Èze, the view from the Tête de Chien and the pine-shaded walk around Cap Martin. Snorkelling, diving and paddleboarding all start right off the shore.

Lucca is the better base, with Pisa about half an hour away and Florence just over an hour on the same railway. Close by are the Marlia and Torrigiani villas, Collodi, Pietrasanta's studios, and even the Cinque Terre or San Gimignano with an early start.

Monaco runs it close, with Nice, Villefranche, Menton and Èze all near by train or bus, and Antibes, Grasse and Sanremo further along the coast. The difference is in the range: Lucca opens up Renaissance cities and hill country, while Monaco's trips mostly follow one strip of coast.

Lucca is flat and mostly closed to cars, so children can ride a family quadricycle around the walls and climb the Torre Guinigi to the trees on top. Pinocchio Park at Collodi is a short drive away, and in autumn Comics & Games fills the town for teenagers.

Monaco's streets climb steeply, though the public lifts help, and its formal restaurants are less suited to children. Its best draw is the aquarium in the Oceanographic Museum, with sharks and turtles. The sheltered water at Larvotto is an easy place for young children to swim.

Both are small enough to walk, but the effort differs. Lucca is flat, and inside the walls bicycles are how people get about. Monaco is all slopes, which it overcomes with free public lifts, escalators and a little harbour ferry. Its station also puts the whole Riviera on the doorstep. From Lucca the trains are good, but the villas and hill villages really call for a car.

Monaco offers more for anyone who comes to shop seriously, as long as luxury is what you want. The Carré d'Or puts the big fashion houses, jewellers and watchmakers within a few walkable streets, though there is little for ordinary budgets.

Lucca's Via Fillungo, with its Liberty-style shopfronts, delicatessens and paper shops, is pleasant but small-town. Its real draw is the monthly antiques market around the cathedral, the kind of browsing Monaco cannot offer.

This is the widest gap between the two. Lucca is fairly priced for central Italy and clearly cheaper than Florence, and rooms just outside the walls are often good value.

Monaco is one of the costliest places anywhere to stay, eat and drink. Its free pleasures are walking the Rock, the gardens and the harbour, and many visitors keep costs down by staying across the French border.

Monaco has the stronger stage. There is opera in the gilded Salle Garnier, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, a winter-to-spring season and a jazz festival in autumn.

Lucca's music is built around Puccini: recitals of his arias most evenings, the Teatro del Giglio, and open-air opera by the lake at Torre del Lago in summer. It is charming and easy to fit into a visit, but there is less of it.

Neither has a bathing culture of its own, so the difference is where you go. In Monaco it is the seawater pools of the thalassotherapy centre beside the Casino and the grand hotel spas, all in town. From Lucca you take a day out to Montecatini's belle époque baths, the cave pools at Monsummano or the steam grottoes of Bagni di Lucca. In return, Lucca's traffic-free streets are calmer to stay in day to day.