Matera or Siena?

Neither city is on the sea, but Matera is the one where a beach day is realistic. About 45 minutes away by car, the Ionian shore around Metaponto and Policoro has wide sand backed by pine woods and calm, shallow water that suits children.

From Siena, the Maremma beaches near Castiglione della Pescaia are well over an hour's drive, so a swim takes a whole day. Most visitors settle for the pool at their hotel or agriturismo, or split the trip with a few nights on the coast.

Siena eats and drinks better. Hand-rolled pici with duck ragù, cinta senese pork and wild boar are served in family osterie in the contrade, and bakeries have made panforte and ricciarelli for generations. Chianti Classico, Brunello and Vino Nobile are all grown close by and poured by the glass.

Matera's cooking is plainer and narrower, built on peasant dishes from Basilicata: its horn-shaped durum bread, crapiata soup, fave e cicoria and crackling fried peperoni cruschi, with a glass of Aglianico. It is honest food, best eaten in the upper town rather than the cave restaurants. Neither city offers much beyond its own regional cooking.

Matera's appeal is a single extraordinary landscape. Its cave houses, rock churches with faded Byzantine frescoes and the Palombaro Lungo cistern under the main piazza come from a way of life that lasted until the 1950s. A day or two covers it, and dusk over the Sassi is the high point.

Siena has more to see, and more of it is great art. Lorenzetti's Good and Bad Government frescoes, Duccio's Maestà, the inlaid floor of the Duomo and the Sienese school in the Pinacoteca are all here, in a medieval centre that is almost entirely intact. Matera is stranger. Siena is richer.

Neither town has clubs, so in both an evening means dinner and a drink outdoors. Siena has a little more going on, thanks to its university pubs and wine bars and a glass of wine on the Campo. The nights around the Palio keep the streets full until late.

In Matera, a few cave bars stay open late only in summer. The best of the evening is the passeggiata on Via del Corso and a drink on a terrace above the lit Sassi, which is lovely for couples but not a night out.

The two are about equally good for time outdoors, but the landscapes are very different. From the bottom of Sasso Caveoso in Matera, you can walk down into the Gravina gorge and climb the stony Murgia plateau on the far side, past abandoned rock churches and Neolithic village sites. It feels wilder, and the Lucanian Dolomites and the Pollino forests are within a day's reach.

Siena's countryside is gentler farmland, best seen by bike. The white strade bianche gravel roads run out from the edge of town through the clay hills of the Crete Senesi towards the Val d'Orcia, and walkers can follow stretches of the Via Francigena.

Both make good bases, but Siena has more top-class places within easy reach. Florence is an easy bus ride away. San Gimignano, Monteriggioni, Volterra, the Chianti villages, Montalcino, Pienza and the abbeys of Sant'Antimo and San Galgano are all close enough for short outings.

Matera's advantage is its position on the border with Puglia. Alberobello's trulli, the white towns of the Valle d'Itria, Castel del Monte and Polignano a Mare are each about an hour away, and the ghost town of Craco is closer. In both cases you will want a car for most of these trips.

Neither town has attractions built for children, but Siena is a little easier with them. It is compact and safe, and the centre is mostly closed to cars. Older children enjoy climbing the Torre del Mangia and watching the contrada drummers, and a farmhouse with a pool makes a comfortable base.

Matera's caves and the underground cistern are a real adventure for older children. But the Sassi's uneven steps rule out a pushchair, and summer afternoons there have little shade. Its best family asset is the shallow sandy coast within driving distance.

Both centres are best explored on foot, and both are hilly. Siena is better connected. Escalators lift you from the railway station up into the old town, and buses reach Florence and several nearby towns.

Matera is off the national rail network. Its narrow-gauge line takes about an hour and a half to reach Bari, and buses are few, so outside the town a hire car is close to essential. Within it, the flat upper town gives way to tiring stairways down into the Sassi.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Siena has a little more choice. Banchi di Sopra and Via di Città have Italian clothing, leather and stationery shops, painted majolica and contrada scarves are local specialities, and a large weekly market fills the area around the Fortezza Medicea.

Matera has a smaller range: cockerel-shaped cuccù whistles, carvings in tufa stone and ordinary shops on Via del Corso. In both towns food makes the best souvenir, dried peppers and Aglianico from Matera, panforte and pecorino from Siena.

Matera is the cheaper of the two. Trattorias in the upper town cost noticeably less than in larger Italian cities, guesthouses in the newer town are cheap and only a short walk from the Sassi, and walking the gorge costs nothing. Only the cave hotels in the Sassi are expensive.

In Siena, rooms inside the walls are scarce and rise sharply in summer and around the Palio. Separate tickets for the cathedral complex and the civic museums add up over a stay. Staying at an agriturismo or in a nearby town keeps costs down.

Siena has much more live music for a town its size. The Accademia Chigiana holds summer concerts in palaces and churches, Siena Jazz adds performances by its teachers and students, and two historic theatres put on drama and music through the winter.

Matera has a few conservatory concerts and some open-air summer events against the backdrop of the Sassi. Its big occasion is the Festa della Bruna, when the papier-mâché float is torn apart. For opera, both towns are too small.

Siena has the edge because of the thermal springs around it. The travertine pools at Rapolano Terme are half an hour away, and further south are the steaming medieval bath at Bagno Vignoni and the free white pools of Bagni San Filippo in the woods.

Matera has no bathing tradition. Its relaxation comes from hotel spas with pools cut into the rock, early mornings in the empty Sassi and evenings watching the light fade over the gorge, all at their quietest from autumn to spring.