Milan or Syracuse, Sicily?

Milan is landlocked, and swimming there is an outing you have to plan. In the city that means the Idroscalo basin or a public pool. Otherwise you take the train for about an hour to a pebbly lido on Lake Como or Lake Maggiore.

Syracuse makes the sea part of every summer day. You can swim from the rocks and platforms beneath Ortigia, go to the sandy bays at Arenella and Fontane Bianche, find small coves on Plemmirio, or drive to the undeveloped sand of Vendicari further south. The water is clear, warm and salty, which the lakes cannot match.

Milan eats better overall. You can have the city's own buttery northern classics, such as saffron risotto and ossobuco, and you can also find good cooking from every Italian region and a serious fine-dining scene. Its aperitivo ritual around the Navigli, Brera and Isola gives the evening a shape.

Syracuse cooks one cuisine, and cooks it well. It starts at the Ortigia market, with swordfish, sea urchin, sardines, capers and citrus, and goes on to almond granita at breakfast and local Nero d'Avola. Do not expect much variety, but the seafood is fresher and simple meals cost far less.

The sightseeing in both cities is first-rate, but it comes from very different eras. Milan is the place for painting and Renaissance genius: Leonardo's Last Supper, the Brera gallery, Michelangelo's last Pietà at the Castello and the marble rooftop of the Duomo. They are scattered in clusters through a largely modern city.

Syracuse goes back much further. A Greek temple is still standing inside its cathedral, the Neapolis park holds a theatre cut into the rock and the Paolo Orsi museum is one of Italy's great archaeological collections. Ortigia is also a continuous baroque old town, which is easier to wander than Milan's separate pockets.

Milan offers a real night out. It starts with aperitivo and moves on to the canal-side bars of the Navigli, Porta Venezia's gay scene, the dressy clubs around Corso Como and warehouse parties on the edges of the city.

In Syracuse the evening is a stroll between small wine and cocktail bars in Ortigia's lanes, with some beach-club dancing in midsummer. Serious clubbers go to Catania. The two cities peak at opposite times: Milan empties in August, just when Ortigia is at its liveliest.

Syracuse has more on its doorstep and more variety. Within easy reach are limestone gorges with green pools at Cavagrande, flamingos on the lagoons at Vendicari, snorkelling and kayaking in the Plemmirio marine reserve, and Etna as a longer day out. Most of it needs a car, and summer heat rules out midday hikes.

Milan itself is flat and hazy, with Parco Sempione and the canal towpaths for cycling. Its strength lies an hour north, where trains run to the steep lakeshores and the ridges of the Prealps. Those suit hikers and sailors, and Milan has winter skiing within range, which Syracuse does not.

From Milan, fast trains do the work and you never need a car. Bergamo's walled upper town and the villages of Lake Como are about an hour away. Verona, Turin and Bologna make full city days out, and Lugano takes you across into Switzerland. Pavia's great monastery, Mantua's Gonzaga palaces and Cremona's violin-making add quieter options.

Syracuse offers just as rich a choice, but you really need a hire car, because the buses are thin. Its trips share a theme: the honey-coloured baroque towns of the Val di Noto, from Noto itself to Modica, Ragusa Ibla and Scicli. Etna's neighbour Catania and Taormina's Greek theatre above the sea lie to the north.

Milan keeps children busy with attractions built for them. There is the science and technology museum with its submarine and trains, the small aquarium beside the playgrounds of Parco Sempione, and Leolandia and Gardaland within easy reach for older children. It is the safer bet when the weather turns.

Syracuse has no zoo, aquarium or theme park, so the sea does the work. The sandy beaches at Arenella and Fontane Bianche shelve gently, and Ortigia's lanes are mostly free of cars. Papyrus boat trips and puppet shows fill the cooler hours, which makes it better for a summer of afternoons on the beach.

Milan is much easier to get around. It has a simple five-line metro you can use with a tap of a contactless card, a dense tram network that includes the old orange cars, and direct trains from three stations to the lakes and nearby towns.

In Syracuse the only easy part is Ortigia, which you can cross on foot in a quarter of an hour. City and regional buses are sparse, and the beaches, gorges and baroque towns all realistically mean hiring a car.

Milan is worth the trip for shopping alone. Many of the great Italian fashion houses were founded in the city, and their flagships line the streets of the Quadrilatero della Moda. Next to the Duomo stands a department store that has defined Italian style for more than a century. Add the design showrooms, the vintage shops of Brera and Porta Ticinese, and the antique markets along the Navigli.

Syracuse is a place for a few souvenirs, not a shopping trip. Ortigia sells hand-painted ceramics, coral and silver jewellery and papyrus paintings, and the market has capers, almonds and pistachio products. The mainland has only ordinary high-street chains.

Your money goes noticeably further in Syracuse, above all on food. Market sandwiches, arancini, granita and trattoria meals with local wine cost far less than anything comparable in Milan. Rooms on Ortigia do get pricey in August, and car hire and fuel add to the bill.

Milan is Italy's most expensive city. Hotel rates soar during trade fairs and fashion weeks. Aperitivo snacks in place of supper, office-worker lunch menus and staying near a metro stop outside the centre all take some of the sting out.

Milan gives you a full evening programme all year except summer. It has La Scala's opera and ballet season, which opens each December, the Piccolo Teatro, a symphony orchestra, jazz rooms and big stadium concerts at San Siro.

Syracuse has one extraordinary event and little else. Each late spring and early summer, Greek tragedies are staged in the ancient theatre itself, a tradition dating from 1914. Beyond that there is Ortigia's Sicilian puppet theatre and a modest municipal programme.

Milan has more actual spa facilities. A well-known thermal complex in the south of the centre has outdoor pools and saunas, there are a few good hotel spas, and in summer you can spend an afternoon at the restored 1930s pools of the Bagni Misteriosi. For real quiet, though, most people take the train north to the lakes.

Syracuse has little beyond hotel treatments, and what it offers is a slower pace. Long lunches, evening walks on the sea walls and sunsets over the harbour make a few days on Ortigia restful, best outside the crowded heat of August.