Lucca or Trieste?

Trieste has the sea at the end of the street. Locals spread towels on Barcola's stepped concrete and pine-shaded lawns, climb down ladders into clear water, and head for the pebble coves at Sistiana, Duino and Grignano. Swimming is part of ordinary summer days there, though sand is almost absent.

Lucca has to travel for its swim, but the Versilia coast it reaches by train has what Trieste lacks. Wide, gently shelving sand runs from Viareggio to Forte dei Marmi, mostly lined with tidy rows of umbrellas, and the wilder Lecciona dunes are backed by pine woods. It works as an afternoon outing rather than something you do every day.

The two eat equally well but in very different styles. Lucca's cooking is plain Tuscan country food: spelt soup, tordelli in ragù, chestnut dishes in the cold months, cecina from bakery counters and its own buccellato, all with mild local olive oil and Montecarlo wine.

Trieste leans towards Central Europe. Boiled pork with horseradish is carved at buffet counters, jota sits beside marinated sardoni, and coffee comes with its own local vocabulary. In both cities the range is narrow, but Trieste's coffee houses and Karst farmhouse osmize give it more variety.

Both have plenty to see, but the history behind them differs. Lucca is medieval and Romanesque, with complete Renaissance walls around a grid of towers and carved church façades such as San Michele in Foro and San Frediano. The whole town is the main sight, and two days cover it.

Trieste is Habsburg and maritime. Its sights are the grand seafront square of Piazza Unità, the Canal Grande quarter, the cathedral and castle on San Giusto, and Miramare's white castle on the coast. A great synagogue and the Risiera memorial add a harder twentieth-century history that Lucca does not have.

Neither is a place for a big night out, but Trieste stays up a little later. Aperitivo spreads from Piazza Unità into the lanes of Cavana, students keep a few streets of wine bars busy, and in summer the kiosks along Barcola stay open into warm nights.

Lucca's evening is an aperitivo, dinner and a walk on the walls, and the centre is calm by midnight. Anyone who wants to dance has to go to the Versilia coast and take a taxi back.

The outdoors is about equally good in both, but it lies at different distances. Trieste's is right behind the houses: the Strada Napoleonica above the gulf, the Rilke Path on the Duino cliffs, Val Rosandra's gorge and the vast Grotta Gigante. The water adds sailing, plus snorkelling in the Miramare reserve.

Lucca's own green space is the ring of walls and the bike paths along the Serchio. Its most dramatic scenery, the marble peaks of the Apuan Alps and the beech woods of the Garfagnana, is an hour's drive north.

Lucca is the stronger base, because its best trips are both famous and close, mostly on one railway line. Pisa is half an hour away by train and Florence a little over an hour, with Pistoia's medieval centre and the old spa town of Montecatini on the same route. The villa gardens at Marlia and Collodi's baroque Villa Garzoni are nearer still. To the north are Viareggio, known for its carnival, and the marble towns of Pietrasanta and Carrara.

Trieste's range is wider but more spread out, and it covers three countries: Aquileia's mosaics, the star-shaped fortress town of Palmanova, Piran across the Slovenian border and Ljubljana beyond it. Istria needs a car, and Venice is a long day at two hours each way.

Both work for families, but they suit different ages. Lucca is flat and largely free of cars, which suits small children. They can ride a family quadricycle around the walls, and Pinocchio Park and sandy beaches are each under half an hour away.

Trieste's steep, stepped streets and rocky swimming spots are harder with toddlers. Older children, though, get a cave big enough to amaze them, a castle by the sea, an aquarium and a hands-on science centre.

Both centres are compact and easy on foot, but they are built differently. Lucca is flat and largely closed to cars, so bikes are the natural way to get about, and trains run straight from outside the walls. Outside town, though, buses are thin and a car becomes necessary.

Trieste's waterfront is level, but the old town climbs in long flights of steps up to San Giusto. To make up for it, city buses reach Miramare and the Karst, and boats cross the bay to Muggia.

Neither is a shopping destination, and the best things to buy in both are edible. Lucca has the prettier main street, Via Fillungo, with its Liberty-style shopfronts, and one of Italy's oldest antiques markets fills the streets once a month. Trieste's equivalent is the antique and second-hand shops of its old town, and the best things to take home are coffee from local roasters, Karst wine and presnitz.

Trieste is the easier city on a budget. Buffet lunches and bar coffee cost little, buses are cheap, and its best pleasures are free: swimming at Barcola, walks on the Karst and the cathedral hill.

Lucca is fair for Tuscany and cheaper than Florence, but rooms are its weak point. There are few hotels inside the walls, and they fill up in summer and during festivals, so many visitors end up staying just outside the walls.

Opera leads in both cities, from different angles. Lucca's draw is Puccini: short recitals of his arias are held most of the year, the Lucca Summer Festival fills Piazza Napoleone, and open-air opera is staged by the lake at Torre del Lago.

Trieste's Teatro Verdi on the waterfront has a full season of opera and ballet, and the city keeps up a Habsburg taste for operetta that is rare in Italy. A Slovenian-language theatre and summer concerts in the San Giusto castle courtyard add to it.

Lucca has the edge for unwinding, mostly because thermal water is part of the country around it, with several historic spa towns less than an hour away. In town, rest means long lunches and a turn on the walls in the evening, when the light goes gold over the rooftops.

Trieste's calm is more urban and literary. Days stretch out over a newspaper in an old coffee house, set by an older, unhurried population, and end with a walk to the tip of the Molo Audace as the sun sets over the gulf. There are hotel spas and a few day spas for treatments, but for thermal baths you have to leave the city.