Lucca or Syracuse, Sicily?

Syracuse lives by the sea. In Ortigia you can swim from rocks and wooden platforms in the middle of the old town, there are family beaches with lidos at Arenella and Fontane Bianche, and Vendicari has pale, undeveloped sand. The Ionian is a touch warmer too, and stays swimmable into early October.

Lucca is inland, so a beach day means taking the train to Viareggio. What you get there is long, gently shelving sand, mostly in rows of umbrellas at beach clubs, with the Lecciona dunes for something wilder. It makes a pleasant half day, but you never wake up beside the water.

Syracuse has the richer table. The Ortigia market supplies swordfish, tuna, sea urchins and capers for pasta with sardines and spaghetti alla siracusana, and summer mornings start with granita and brioche. Nero d'Avola and the sweet Moscato di Siracusa are made nearby.

Lucca's cooking is plainer inland food: farro soup, tordelli in ragù, chestnut dishes and cecina, with good olive oil from the surrounding hills. It is dependable and fairly priced, but the menus repeat themselves sooner than they do in Sicily.

Syracuse has the deeper history. You can see a cathedral built around the columns of a Greek temple, the rock-cut theatre and Ear of Dionysius in the Neapolis park, the Paolo Orsi museum and a Caravaggio, which together justify two or three full days.

Lucca's appeal is the town as a whole: its complete Renaissance walls, the carved Romanesque fronts of San Michele and San Frediano, and the oval piazza built over a Roman amphitheatre. It is lovely, but its museums are modest, and two days cover the essentials.

Neither is a place for a big night, but Syracuse lasts longer. On summer weekends Ortigia's lanes of wine and cocktail bars stay busy past midnight, and beach clubs add some dancing in July and August. In Lucca, an evening means aperitivo in the piazza, dinner and a walk on the walls, and the centre is quiet by midnight. Anyone who wants to dance has to get to the Versilia coast and back.

The two are close here, but the landscapes are very different. Lucca has gentle olive hills and cycle paths along the Serchio, with the steep marble peaks of the Apuan Alps and the chestnut woods of the Garfagnana within about an hour, which is the better choice for serious mountain hiking.

Around Syracuse the outdoors is drier and closer to the sea. There are limestone gorges with green pools at Cavagrande, flamingos at Vendicari, snorkelling in the Plemmirio reserve and papyrus along the Ciane. Etna is close enough for a day trip.

Both make excellent bases, and the real difference is how you travel. From Lucca, Pisa, Florence, Pistoia and Montecatini are all on one railway line, so the best of Tuscany is possible without a car, though the villas and Garfagnana villages are easier to reach by road.

From Syracuse you reach the baroque towns of the Val di Noto, Catania and Taormina, plus the mosaics at Piazza Armerina. These are memorable trips, but most of them are much easier by hired car than by bus.

They are about level for children, for different reasons. In Lucca the draws are riding a quadricycle round the walls, climbing the tree-topped tower, a short trip to Pinocchio Park at Collodi, and Lucca Comics & Games for teenagers.

Syracuse wins children over with the sea: gently shelving sandy beaches, papyrus boat trips, puppet shows and the echoing Ear of Dionysius. Its July heat, though, means sightseeing has to fit around the afternoon swim.

Lucca is far easier. The walled centre is flat and mostly closed to traffic, you can rent bikes at every gate, and the station just outside the walls has regular trains across Tuscany. You only need a car for the hill villages.

In Syracuse, Ortigia is easy to cross on foot, but city buses are confusing and regional services are thin. Vendicari, the gorges and most baroque towns realistically mean hiring a car.

Lucca has the edge, mainly because of Via Fillungo's fashion and jewellery shops behind old Liberty fronts and the monthly antiques market around the cathedral, one of the oldest in Italy. Syracuse is better for crafts: hand-painted ceramics, coral jewellery and papyrus paintings, plus capers and pistachio products from the market to take home. Neither has luxury shopping.

Syracuse is the cheaper of the two day to day. Street food, granita and trattoria meals with local wine cost noticeably less than in Tuscany, though August rooms on Ortigia and the car you will probably need add up.

Lucca is cheaper than Florence but sits at normal central Italian prices. Hotels inside the walls are scarce and fill up in summer and during festivals, so staying just outside the walls saves money.

Lucca has much more on in the evenings. Puccini recitals run in a central church for most of the year, and the Teatro del Giglio holds an opera season. Summer brings outdoor star concerts in Piazza Napoleone and open-air opera by the lake at Torre del Lago.

Syracuse has one outstanding event: Greek tragedy performed in the ancient theatre each late spring and early summer. Outside that season, the evening programme is little more than the puppet theatres.

Neither city has spas of its own, but Lucca puts real ones within easy reach. Montecatini's belle époque baths are a short train ride away, Monsummano has warm cave pools and Bagni di Lucca has steam grottoes. Syracuse offers only hotel treatments and a few day spas, so relaxing there comes down to slow days on Ortigia and sunsets over the harbour, which are best away from the August crowds.