Lucca or Split?

Split has the sea on its doorstep, and Lucca does not. Bačvice's shallow sandy bay is a short walk from the palace, the Marjan coves add pine shade and deeper water, and catamarans reach Brač and Hvar for longer beaches. The catch is that most of the city shore is pebble or concrete, and it gets crowded in high summer.

Lucca's beaches are a train ride away at Viareggio, but they are softer underfoot. Wide, gently shelving sand runs north to Forte dei Marmi, mostly laid out in rows of umbrellas, and the Lecciona dunes are there for something wilder. It works as an afternoon outing rather than a reason to stay.

The two are much the same on quality, and both kitchens are regional and offer little international food. What you eat is quite different, though. Lucca's food is rustic and inland: spelt soup, tordelli in ragù, chestnut flour and chickpea cecina, with the mild olive oil of the hills and Montecarlo wine.

Split cooks from the sea, with grilled fish, black risotto and peka, best eaten in the konobas of Varoš, and its fish market and the Pazar are better places to browse. Lucca's trattorias inside the walls are more consistent, while many menus inside Split's palace are aimed at the summer crowd.

The two are evenly matched. In both, the city itself is the main sight, and two days cover it. Lucca's draw is a medieval street plan inside intact Renaissance walls, with the carved arcades of San Michele in Foro, the cathedral's tomb of Ilaria del Carretto and the oval Piazza dell'Anfiteatro.

Split has one larger and older monument instead. Diocletian's Palace is a Roman emperor's residence that people still live in, with a cathedral in his mausoleum and vaulted halls underneath. For museums, the Meštrović Gallery gives Split a slight edge over Lucca's modest national collections.

Split is far livelier after dark, at least in summer. Bars fill the stone stairways of the palace until late, and the clubs around Bačvice run into the early hours. From October to May, though, the scene shrinks to a few bars.

Lucca's evenings are an aperitivo in a piazza, a long dinner and a stroll on the walls, and the centre is quiet by midnight. Anyone who wants to dance has to go out to the Versilia coast and arrange a late ride back.

Split has more right on its doorstep. The pine forest and cliffs of Marjan start at the edge of the old town, Mosor and Kozjak offer ridge hikes behind the city, and the sea adds kayaking, sailing and island-hopping. Rafting in the Cetina canyon and the waterfalls of Krka are easy day outings.

Lucca's own outdoors is gentler: the 4km tree-lined walls, cycle paths along the Serchio and hills covered in olive groves. The real scenery is about an hour away, in the marble peaks of the Apuan Alps and the chestnut woods of the Garfagnana. In both places, spring and autumn are better for walking than midsummer.

Lucca is the stronger base, mostly because some of Italy's best-known towns are on its railway line. Pisa is about half an hour away and Florence a little over an hour. Pistoia, the Montecatini spas, the villa gardens at Marlia and Collodi, and the marble-carving town of Pietrasanta are all close by.

Split's excursions are good but fewer, and many depend on ferries or the coast road. The choice includes Trogir and Šibenik, the Roman ruins at Salona, Klis Fortress and the islands of Hvar and Brač. These trips are easy in summer but need more planning in winter.

Neither city has much built for children, and both work best for simple days out. In Lucca the treat is riding the walls on a rented quadricycle and wandering streets free of traffic. Pinocchio Park at Collodi is nearby, and in autumn Lucca Comics & Games delights older children.

Split offers the sea instead. Bačvice is shallow enough for small children, Marjan gives shade and room to run, and a ferry to an island is often the best day. The polished steps of the palace and the summer crowds make it harder work with a pushchair.

Inside Lucca's walls the streets are flat and mostly closed to ordinary traffic, so a bike from one of the rental shops by the gates takes you everywhere. The station just outside the southern walls has regular trains to Pisa, Florence and Viareggio. You only really need a car for the villas, the hill villages and the Garfagnana, where buses are sparse.

Split's centre is just as compact, but the palace lanes are polished stone and full of steps, which is hard going with heavy luggage. Local buses are basic and the coast road is slow in summer. Leaving the city is the easy part, because the ferries, intercity buses and trains all go from the same harbour.

Lucca is the better place to shop, though you would not travel to either just for shopping. Via Fillungo has fashion and jewellery shops behind old Liberty-style shopfronts, the side streets have good delicatessens, and the monthly antiques market around the cathedral is a real draw.

Split's palace shops lean towards souvenirs, lavender and ties, and the fashion chains are on Marmontova. Its best browsing is the Pazar market, with dried figs, honey and local brandy.

Overall costs are much the same, and neither city is cheap. In Lucca the main expense is rooms, since there are few hotels inside the walls. Staying just outside them saves money, and meals and trains are fairly priced.

In Split the cost depends far more on the season. Rooms near the old town are expensive in July and August and ferries to the islands add up, while May, June, late September and winter are much kinder to the budget.

Lucca has the richer musical life, and it is built on Puccini. Recitals of his arias are held through most of the year and the Teatro del Giglio has an opera season. The summer festival brings big concerts to Piazza Napoleone, and Torre del Lago stages his operas outdoors beside the lake.

Split has the Croatian National Theatre, the open-air summer festival in the Peristyle and klapa singing in the palace vestibule. Outside summer, though, there is much less on.

Lucca has the edge for a restful trip, mainly because real thermal water is within easy reach. Montecatini's grand belle époque spa halls are half an hour away by train, Monsummano Terme has warm pools inside a natural cave, and the old resort of Bagni di Lucca has steam grottoes in the wooded Serchio valley. Lucca itself has few spas, but its car-free streets and a slow walk on the walls at dusk make the town restful.

Split has nothing like that. There are no thermal springs to visit, and a pampering day means a massage or a hotel spa at one of the resorts east of the centre. What it offers instead is fjaka, the Dalmatian habit of idling, which shows in coffees on the Riva that stretch across a whole morning. In high summer the old town stays noisy late into the night, so rest is easier to find in the shoulder months, among the pines of Marjan or out on an island.