Lucca or Siena?

Lucca has a real beach option and Siena does not. The Versilia coast starts at Viareggio, a short train ride away, with long, gently shelving sand that runs up to Forte dei Marmi, and there are wilder dunes at the Lecciona. A morning in town and an afternoon swim is easy.

From Siena, the nearest good beaches are around Castiglione della Pescaia on the Maremma, well over an hour by car. Swimming there means a full day out, so most visitors settle for a hotel or agriturismo pool.

Both cities eat well in a rustic Tuscan style, and in both, variety beyond the local kitchen is thin. Lucca's table is plainer and leans on its province, with farro soup from the Garfagnana, meat-filled tordelli, chickpea cecina and chestnut flour in the colder months.

Siena has the edge in wine and baking. Chianti Classico grows to the north and Brunello and Vino Nobile to the south, and the enoteche pour them by the glass. Hand-rolled pici and cinta senese pork turn up on the menus, and old pastry shops sell panforte and ricciarelli.

Siena is the richer cultural stop. The Campo and Palazzo Pubblico, Lorenzetti's Good and Bad Government, the Duomo with its Piccolomini Library and Duccio's Maestà make up a set of medieval masterpieces that Lucca cannot match. The contrade give each neighbourhood its own identity.

Lucca's appeal is more about the whole town than about single works. It has its complete Renaissance walls, the carved arcades of San Michele in Foro, the oval Piazza dell'Anfiteatro and the Torre Guinigi with trees on top. Its museums are modest, and two days cover it comfortably.

Neither is a place for late nights, and both centres quieten before midnight. Lucca's evenings run to aperitivo in its piazzas and a stroll along the walls, and in summer the dancing happens on the Versilia coast, which means a late drive back.

Siena has a slightly busier student bar scene thanks to the university. Its one real exception is the Palio, when the contrade hold long outdoor dinners and the streets stay full late into the night.

These are two different landscapes of roughly equal appeal. Lucca has more variety. The walls and the Serchio cycle paths are right in town, the steep marble peaks of the Apuan Alps are within an hour for serious hiking, and the wetlands of Massaciuccoli and San Rossore are good for birdwatching.

Siena offers the classic postcard Tuscany: the bare clay hills of the Crete Senesi, the Val d'Orcia and cypress-lined lanes. Its strength is cycling on the strade bianche gravel roads, but there are no high mountains and no coast.

Both make superb bases, but they face in different directions. Lucca has Pisa, Florence, Pistoia and the Montecatini spas along a single rail line, plus the villa gardens, Pietrasanta's sculptors and the Cinque Terre at a stretch.

Siena sits among the hill towns and the wine country: San Gimignano, Monteriggioni, the Chianti villages, Montalcino, Pienza and abbeys such as Sant'Antimo and San Galgano. Many of these are hard to reach without a car, whereas much of Lucca's list works by train.

Lucca is noticeably easier with children. The centre is flat and car-free, renting a family quadricycle on the walls is a ready-made outing, Pinocchio Park at Collodi and the beaches are both close, and Lucca Comics & Games delights teenagers in autumn.

Siena is safe and welcoming, and older children enjoy the Torre del Mangia and the contrada drummers. Its steep, stepped lanes are hard work with a pushchair, though, and there is nothing aimed at children, so families often stay in a farmhouse with a pool instead.

Lucca is the easier town to move around. It is flat inside its walls, bikes are the local transport, and the station sits just outside the southern gate with regular trains along the coast and to Florence.

Siena is just as walkable but much steeper, spread over three ridges, with escalators climbing from a valley station served by slow, infrequent trains. Buses are the better link to Florence. In both, the countryside is far simpler with a hire car.

Lucca has a little more to offer. Via Fillungo combines fashion and jewellery behind old Liberty shopfronts, and the monthly antiques market around the cathedral is one of the oldest in Italy and worth planning a weekend around.

Siena's shopping centres on local crafts and food: majolica ceramics, contrada scarves, panforte and pecorino, plus the weekly market by the Fortezza. Away from Banchi di Sopra, the lanes near the Campo are mostly souvenir stalls.

The two cost much the same, both cheaper than Florence and neither cheap, with rooms inside the walls as the main expense. Lucca is slightly kinder overall, because its walls and many of its churches are free to visit.

In Siena, entry to the cathedral complex and the civic museums adds up, and room prices jump around the Palio. In both, staying outside the walls or in an agriturismo saves money.

Lucca has more live music. As Puccini's birthplace, it holds recitals of his arias most evenings in a central church, an opera season at the Teatro del Giglio and big outdoor concerts in Piazza Napoleone in July. The lakeside Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago is close by.

Siena's music is more academic: summer chamber concerts from the Accademia Chigiana, jazz from Siena Jazz and a winter programme at its two historic theatres. For opera, you have to go to Florence.

Neither town has baths of its own, so a soak means a trip out of town from either. From Lucca you can take the train to the grand belle époque spa halls of Montecatini or drive to the steam grottoes of Bagni di Lucca and the cave pools of Monsummano.

Siena's springs are wilder and more rural. Rapolano's travertine pools, the steaming village bath at Bagno Vignoni and the free limestone pools of Bagni San Filippo suit a stay at a countryside spa better than a quick train trip.