Naples or Siena?

Naples at least has the sea at hand. You can swim off the rocks below the Lungomare and at small lidos in Posillipo. The clear, rocky coves of Capri, Ischia, Procida and the Sorrento peninsula are a ferry or train ride away, though the water near the port is not always clean.

Siena has no swimming beyond a hotel or agriturismo pool. The Maremma beaches around Castiglione della Pescaia are well over an hour's drive, so a swim takes a whole day.

The two kitchens are proud and local, but Naples puts food at the centre of a visit in a way Siena does not. In Naples you get blistered pizza in noisy shared rooms, fried pizza and seafood in paper cones, sfogliatelle and babà, and markets such as the Pignasecca piled with mozzarella and San Marzano tomatoes.

Siena's strengths are slower ones. There is hand-rolled pici, ribollita and wild boar in the osterie of the contrade, panforte and ricciarelli in the bakeries, and Chianti, Brunello and Vino Nobile by the glass. Neither city has much international food.

Naples has more, and more varied, sights. There is the Greek street grid of Spaccanapoli crowded with churches, Pompeii's finds in the Archaeological Museum, the Veiled Christ, the tunnels and catacombs underground, and palaces and castles on the hills. That is enough for a week.

Siena gives you one complete medieval city rather than many layers. The Campo, the Palazzo Pubblico with Lorenzetti's Good and Bad Government, and the striped Duomo with Duccio's Maestà next door can be seen properly in two or three days.

Naples stays out late. Students drink on the steps of Piazza Bellini, and a smarter crowd fills the lanes behind Piazza dei Martiri until well after midnight, though neither city is a place for clubbing. Siena's evenings mean dinner, wine on the Campo and a quiet walk home, except for the Palio nights, when the contrade feast in the streets.

The landscape around Naples is more dramatic. You can walk up to the crater rim of Vesuvius, explore the old craters of the Phlegraean Fields and Astroni, snorkel at Gaiola, and hike the Path of the Gods high above the Amalfi Coast.

Siena's countryside is gentler and suits cyclists best. There are the clay hills of the Crete Senesi, the Val d'Orcia, and the white gravel strade bianche starting at the edge of town. It has no coast or high mountains to match the bay.

Both are superb bases, and the difference is in the kind of trip. From Naples the outings are archaeology and sea: Pompeii, Herculaneum and Oplontis by train, Caserta's palace, ferries to Capri and Procida, and the Amalfi Coast.

From Siena they are hill towns, wine and abbeys: San Gimignano, Montalcino, Pienza, San Galgano and Florence. Naples manages most of this without a car, while Siena's wineries and villages are far easier with one.

Neither city is built around children, but Naples has a little more for them. There is Edenlandia, the zoo and the Bagnoli science museum, and older children love the funiculars, the ferries and the tunnels. Against that, you have scooters, missing pavements and summer crowds.

Siena is safer and calmer, but it has no attractions made for children, and its steep lanes are tiring with a pushchair. In both cases, families often do better staying outside, in Sorrento or on a farm with a pool.

Siena is the easier town to move around on foot. The centre is largely closed to traffic, the Campo and the Duomo are minutes apart, and escalators climb from the station, though the ridges make for steep climbs.

Naples is bigger and messier. Its metro and four funiculars are useful, but buses get stuck in traffic and the Circumvesuviana is crowded. You never need a car there, whereas the Sienese countryside more or less demands one.

Naples has the more interesting shopping. You'll find Chiaia's tailors and silk ties, the Galleria Umberto I and Via Toledo, nativity figures on Via San Gregorio Armeno, and coral and cameos from Torre del Greco. Siena's shopping is modest: majolica, contrada scarves, panforte and pecorino, plus a big weekly market by the Fortezza.

Your money goes further in Naples. Pizza, street food, coffee at the bar and transport all cost little, and modest B&Bs fill the historic centre, as long as you stay in the city rather than on Capri or the Amalfi Coast.

Siena has few rooms inside its walls and they are in demand, especially in summer and around the Palio. Eating in an osteria away from the Campo, or staying at an agriturismo outside town, keeps costs down.

Naples has a real stage in the Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, with a full season of opera, ballet and concerts. Neapolitan song is still sung in small shows and trattorias.

Siena's music is serious but small in scale. It centres on the Accademia Chigiana's summer concerts and the students of Siena Jazz, with drama at the Rinnovati and the Rozzi. For opera, you go to Florence.

Siena is the calmer place to slow down, and its springs are close. There are the travertine pools of Rapolano, the steaming square of Bagno Vignoni and the free limestone pools of Bagni San Filippo, all easy to combine with a stay in the hills.

Naples itself is too intense to relax in. Its answer is Ischia's terraced thermal parks, an hour away by hydrofoil, or the old Agnano baths on the city's edge.