Lucca or Zermatt?

Lucca has no sea of its own, but the long sandy beaches of Versilia are less than half an hour away by train. The water shelves gently and is warm enough to swim from June to September. You can pick the neat rows of umbrellas at the beach clubs or the dunes of the Lecciona, which are backed by pine woods.

Zermatt has nothing like this. Its mountain tarns are for photographing the Matterhorn, not for swimming, so a swim means a hotel pool.

Lucca eats better, and for less. Farro soup, meat-filled tordelli, cecina from the bakery and buccellato make a distinct local table, and the family trattorias inside the walls are reliable, even if the menus start to look alike after a few days.

Zermatt's food is heavier and feels more like an occasion than everyday eating: raclette, fondue and air-dried beef, at their best on a chalet terrace at Findeln or Zum See with the Matterhorn in view. In the village the choice is mostly hotel dining rooms and a few ambitious kitchens, and casual, inexpensive meals are scarce.

The gap here is wide. In Lucca the city itself is the sight: an intact ring of Renaissance walls, the arcaded front of San Michele in Foro, the mosaic at San Frediano, the cathedral with Ilaria del Carretto's tomb, and the oval piazza built into a Roman amphitheatre. Two full days go by easily.

Zermatt's heritage is about mountaineering. The Matterhorn Museum, the climbers' cemetery and the old larch barns of the Hinterdorf take a morning, and after that the peaks are the attraction.

Neither is a place for a big night out, but Zermatt is a little livelier in winter. The après-ski bars on the runs into the village fill from late afternoon, and a few bars and small clubs on the main street stay open past midnight on busy weekends. In summer and between seasons the village goes quiet early.

Lucca's evenings are slower: aperitivo in Piazza San Michele, a long dinner, a stroll on the walls, and a calm centre by midnight. In summer, dancing means a late trip out to the Versilia coast.

Close to Lucca the outdoors is gentle: the 4km tree-lined walls, cycle paths along the Serchio and olive-covered hills. It gets dramatic about an hour north, in the marble-quarried Apuan Alps and the chestnut woods of the Garfagnana, and spring and autumn are the seasons for both.

Zermatt is in another league. The Matterhorn rises straight above the village, and lifts climb to glaciers above 3,800m. The same lifts serve skiing into Italy in winter and, in summer, hundreds of kilometres of trails, ibex and climbs of four-thousand-metre peaks.

Lucca is one of the best bases in Tuscany. Pisa is half an hour away by train and Florence just over an hour, and the villas at Marlia and Collodi, the sculptors' studios of Pietrasanta and the Versilia coast are all close. With an early start you can even reach the Cinque Terre or San Gimignano.

From Zermatt every outing begins with a long train ride down the valley. Sion, with its castle hills, and Brig, with the Stockalper Palace, are each worth a day, but most visitors spend their spare days up the mountain instead.

Both have quiet, traffic-free centres, but Lucca gives children a little more to do. Riding the walls on a family quadricycle, the oak trees on top of the Torre Guinigi, Pinocchio Park at Collodi and the nearby beaches fill several days, and Lucca Comics & Games is a treat for teenagers in autumn.

Zermatt works best for families who ski or hike: nursery slopes at Sunnegga in winter, marmots and cog railways in summer. Rainy days are hard to fill, though, and the highest viewpoints can be too cold and too high for small children.

Both are easy on foot, and in neither does a car help much in town. Lucca's flat centre is made for bikes, and the station just outside the walls has frequent trains to Pisa and Florence, though you need a car for the hill villages and the Garfagnana.

Zermatt is car-free altogether. You arrive by train via Täsch, walk or take an electric taxi, and catch the cog railway and gondolas straight from the village. The slow part is leaving the valley, which takes over an hour by train.

Lucca has more to browse. The old Liberty-style shopfronts on Via Fillungo, delicatessens selling olive oil and buccellato, and the monthly antiques market around the cathedral make a pleasant afternoon, though not a luxury one.

Zermatt's one main street is aimed at wealthy skiers, with Swiss watches, jewellery, cowbells and chocolate. Its real strength is outdoor gear, which is excellent if you need boots or a shell jacket.

Lucca is moderately priced for central Italy and cheaper than Florence. The walls and many churches are free, and beds are the main expense, which you can cut by staying just outside the walls. Zermatt is one of the most expensive places in the Alps, with steep rooms, mountain-terrace meals and lift tickets, and even self-catering and sleeping in Täsch only soften the cost.

Music runs deep in Lucca, Puccini's birthplace. Recitals of his arias are held for most of the year, the Teatro del Giglio has an opera season, and in July big outdoor concerts come to Piazza Napoleone. The lakeside Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago is half an hour away.

Zermatt has no theatre or concert hall. Zermatt Unplugged in spring and a late-summer chamber music festival in the church are worth planning a trip around, but at other times live music means a band in an après-ski bar.

Neither has thermal springs of its own, so the difference is in the kind of rest each offers. Lucca relaxes you through its pace, with quiet streets and long lunches, and old spa towns make easy day trips: Montecatini Terme, the cave pools at Monsummano and the steam grottoes of Bagni di Lucca.

In Zermatt the pampering happens indoors, in a dense cluster of hotel spas with pools, saunas and mountain views, some of which sell day passes to visitors. The clear air is restful, but the village feels active rather than slow.