Lucca or Zadar?

Zadar has the sea right in town. Locals swim off the stone promenade and at Kolovare and Borik, although those beaches are pebble or concrete platforms. For sand, you go to Nin's long, shallow beaches or take a boat to Sakarun on Dugi Otok.

Lucca is inland. Its beach days start with a train ride of about half an hour to Viareggio. In return you get the broad, gently shelving sand of the Versilia coast, mostly laid out with rows of umbrellas at beach clubs, and the wilder dunes of the Lecciona.

Lucca gives the more rewarding table, though neither city has a wide range. Its cooking is rustic and very local: spelt soup with farro from the Garfagnana, tordelli in ragù, chestnut dishes in the colder months, cecina from bakery counters and buccellato. Mild olive oil and wines from the Colline Lucchesi go with it, mostly served in family trattorias inside the walls.

Zadar's menus are about the Adriatic: grilled fish and squid, black risotto, peka-cooked lamb, Pag cheese, and a glass of Maraschino at the end. Its konobas repeat one another even more than Lucca's trattorias do, and the cheaper places along the main streets are aimed at passing visitors.

Lucca has the richer set of sights. The walls survive whole, the streets inside are packed with towers and churches, and the Romanesque façades of San Michele and San Frediano are the highlight. The cathedral holds the tomb of Ilaria del Carretto, and the oval piazza still follows the outline of the Roman amphitheatre.

Zadar packs a longer span of history into its peninsula. It has an open Roman forum, the round ninth-century St Donatus and Venetian gates, plus a fine glass museum. Its most memorable modern sight, the Sea Organ, has no equivalent in Lucca. Both cities take about two days to see properly.

Neither city is for serious partying, but Zadar has more going on after dark. On summer nights people gather at sunset on the Riva, then move to café-bars along Kalelarga and terrace bars on the walls, and they stay out late. Anyone who wants clubs can reach Zrće on Pag in about an hour.

In Lucca, evenings mean aperitivo in Piazza San Michele, a long dinner and a walk on the walls. The centre is quiet by midnight. Dancing means a late drive to the Versilia coast.

Zadar has the wilder and more varied outdoors. Paklenica's limestone gorges are about 45 minutes away and are known for climbing. Out at sea are the bare Kornati islands and Telašćica's cliffs, and Krka's waterfalls are an hour south. Sea kayaking and island cycling are easy to arrange.

Lucca's countryside is gentler, with olive groves and villa gardens close at hand and the 4km ring of the walls for running and cycling. Real mountains are within an hour in the Apuan Alps and the Garfagnana, and Lake Massaciuccoli is good for birdwatching. What Lucca can't offer is a coastline of islands.

Lucca is one of the best bases in Tuscany, mainly because the train does the work. Pisa is half an hour away, Florence a little over an hour, and Pistoia and Montecatini are on the same line. The villas at Marlia and Collodi, the marble studios of Pietrasanta and the villages of the Garfagnana fill further days.

Zadar's outings are good but take more effort. Šibenik's cathedral and Nin are easy, while Split and Trogir make long days by motorway. The islands are reached by ferry, and for most other trips you need a car or an organised excursion.

Both cities are about equally easy with children, but the days look different. In Lucca, family time centres on renting bikes or a quadricycle to ride the walls and climbing the tree-topped Torre Guinigi. Pinocchio Park at Collodi is twenty minutes away, and teenagers love Lucca Comics & Games in autumn.

In Zadar, family days are spent mostly by the water. Children love the Sea Organ and the tiles that light up after dark, Nin's shallow sand is ideal for small children, and short ferry rides feel like an adventure. Neither city has much else built specifically for children.

Lucca is the easier of the two. The walled centre is flat and largely closed to traffic, bike rental is found at every gate, and the station just outside the southern walls has regular trains to Pisa, Viareggio and Florence.

Zadar's peninsula is just as walkable, and the island ferries leave from its edge. Beyond that, local buses are basic, and the national parks and the wider coast really call for a hire car. Both cities need a car for their countryside.

Lucca gives a shopper more to do, though neither city is worth a trip just for its shops. Via Fillungo, the narrow main street, mixes fashion and jewellery with shopfronts that still have their early twentieth-century decoration, and the lanes around it hold artisan workshops, paper shops and delicatessens stocked with the province's oil, farro and buccellato. The antiques market is the one thing worth planning a date around. It is among the oldest in Italy and takes over the streets near the cathedral one weekend a month.

Zadar has nothing to match that market. Kalelarga, its marble main street, is mostly chain stores and souvenirs and has less character than Via Fillungo. Where Zadar holds its own is food and craft from the islands. Maraschino, Pag cheese and figs from the stalls below the walls make a better bag to take home than anything on the main street, and the fine lace made on Pag has no equivalent in Lucca.

Costs are close, and Zadar is slightly easier on the budget. Private apartments there are good value outside July and August, and ferries and buses are inexpensive, although national park entry and boat trips add up.

In Lucca, the walls and many churches are free and trattoria meals are fair. The main cost is accommodation, since few hotels sit inside the walls. Staying just outside them usually saves money.

This is where the two differ most. Thanks to Puccini, a visit to Lucca can include opera on almost any evening of the year, through recitals of his arias in a central church. The Teatro del Giglio runs a full season, Piazza Napoleone hosts big outdoor concerts in July, and the lakeside Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago is half an hour away.

Zadar's highlight is beautiful but seasonal: early and chamber music inside St Donatus in summer, plus klapa singing in the squares. Outside July and August, there is little to attend.

Lucca has proper thermal water within reach, though not in town. Montecatini's belle époque spa halls are half an hour away by train, Monsummano has warm cave pools, and Bagni di Lucca has steam grottoes up the Serchio valley.

Zadar has no bathing tradition. Your options are hotel spas at Borik and the old mud lagoon at Nin. Both cities are restful in a similar way: the calm comes from a slow pace, whether that means an evening walk on Lucca's shaded walls or sunset from the Sea Organ steps.