Lucca or Nice?

In Nice you swim from the city itself. About 7km of pebble shore runs below the Promenade des Anglais, the water is clear, and sandy coves at Villefranche and Cap Ferrat are a short ride east. The stones are the drawback, so a beach-club lounger or water shoes help.

Lucca is inland, and going to the beach is an outing. The train reaches Viareggio in under half an hour, and the Versilia shore offers long, gently shelving sand that is easier for paddling than Nice's pebbles. Most of it is lined with umbrellas at beach clubs, with wilder dunes at the Lecciona.

Both cities make something from chickpea flour, cecina in Lucca and socca in Nice, but Nice has the richer kitchen overall. Its Ligurian-leaning dishes, the Cours Saleya market and a few serious kitchens in the hills give it more range. The main thing to avoid is the set-menu terraces on the promenade.

Lucca cooks plainly and well: farro soup, tordelli in ragù, chestnut dishes in the cooler months and buccellato. It is reliable and fairly priced in family trattorias, but the menus repeat after a few days and there is little beyond local cooking.

The two are evenly matched, but the cultural visits are very different. In Lucca the attraction is the townscape. There are the intact Renaissance walls, the carved Romanesque fronts of San Michele and San Frediano, the cathedral with Ilaria del Carretto's tomb, and the oval piazza built into a Roman amphitheatre. Its museums are modest.

Nice is the city for art lovers. The Matisse and Chagall museums in Cimiez and MAMAC's Yves Klein rooms are the main draws, and the Savoyard old town, Belle Époque villas and the Russian cathedral give it a second, more mixed history.

Nice has a real night out, though not a wild one. Students, locals and visitors share the pubs and cocktail bars of Vieux Nice, the port has calmer bars, and summer keeps the promenade busy late. Lucca's evenings are aperitivo in a piazza, dinner and a walk on the walls. Anyone who wants to dance has to go to the Versilia coast and arrange a late ride back.

Nice has more variety on its doorstep, where the Alps meet the sea. There are coastal paths round Cap Ferrat, corniche roads for cycling, the Mercantour's high lakes and ibex, and winter skiing within about an hour and a half. Sailing, diving and paddleboarding are easy to arrange from the city.

Lucca's countryside is gentler: olive groves, villa gardens, cycling on the walls and along the Serchio. Further out it can be rugged too, with the marble-scarred Apuan Alps about an hour north, chestnut woods in the Garfagnana and birdlife around Lake Massaciuccoli.

Both cities make excellent bases, and the difference is the kind of trip. From Lucca the train runs to Pisa, Pistoia and Florence, so the days are about Tuscan art cities, plus Carrara's marble and the sculptors' studios of Pietrasanta. The grand country villas and the Garfagnana villages are easier with a car.

From Nice the outings run along the coast and can all be done without a car. They include Monaco, Èze on its rock, Menton, Antibes and Cannes, with Saint-Paul-de-Vence and Grasse inland and Sanremo just across the Italian border.

Lucca's classic family outing is a rented quadricycle on the walls, a flat ring with no cars, followed by the trees on top of the Torre Guinigi. Pinocchio Park at Collodi and the Versilia sand are both within half an hour, and older children love the costumes of Lucca Comics & Games in autumn. Beyond those, most of the sights are churches and palaces.

Nice has more to fill the days in town, with the playgrounds and water jets of the Promenade du Paillon, the greenhouses and animals at Parc Phoenix, and Monaco's Oceanographic Museum a short train ride away. The pebbles, the summer heat and the stepped lanes of the old town are harder going with small children.

Inside its walls, Lucca runs on bicycles. It is compact, flat and largely closed to traffic, there is bike rental at every gate, and the station sits just outside the southern walls. The hill villages and country villas are where you would miss a car.

Nice moves by tram and train instead. A tram line links the airport, the centre and the port, buses climb to Cimiez, and coastal trains cover the Riviera, though they are crowded in summer. A car only matters for the mountains.

Nice has more choice, with chain stores on Avenue Jean Médecin, luxury houses around rue Paradis, and Provençal soaps, fabrics and candied fruit in the old town. Lucca is a small-town shop of Via Fillungo boutiques and delicatessens, though its monthly antiques market around the cathedral is a real event for collectors.

Lucca is the cheaper stay, though neither city is a bargain. In both, accommodation is the main cost. Lucca's fills up in summer and at festival time, so staying outside the walls often saves money.

Nice is dearer from June to September, and loungers and seafront terraces add to the bill. Its cheap trams and trains, low-cost museums and socca help, and spring or late autumn eases things considerably.

Lucca has the stronger musical identity, and it comes from Puccini. Short recitals of his arias run through most of the year, the Teatro del Giglio has a full opera season, and the summer brings open-air opera beside the lake at Torre del Lago and big outdoor concerts in Piazza Napoleone.

Nice offers a solid regional programme at its opera house and the national theatre, mostly in French. Its standout is the Nice Jazz Festival in July, together with the February Carnival.

Neither city has spa baths of its own, but Lucca sits close to some of Italy's classic spa towns. Montecatini's belle époque spas, the warm cave pools at Monsummano and the steam grottoes of Bagni di Lucca all make easy days out. Back in town, the quiet, car-free streets are restful in themselves.

Nice's version is hotel spas and thalassotherapy along the coast, plus an early swim before the crowds. It is calm out of season, less so in high summer.