Nice or Rome?

In Nice the beach is part of daily life. The 7km pebble shore below the Promenade des Anglais has clear water you can step into after breakfast, and for sand and calmer coves there are Villefranche, Paloma beach and Beaulieu a short ride east, or Juan-les-Pins to the west.

Rome has to send you out of town for a swim. Ostia's dark volcanic sand is half an hour away by train, mostly lined with paid lidos, and the water is rarely clear. Pretty coves mean a long trip south to Sperlonga, so the sea is an outing rather than a rhythm.

Rome is the stronger place to eat. Its cooking runs deeper, from the four classic pastas and Jewish-style artichokes in the Ghetto to Testaccio's offal dishes, supplì and pizza al taglio, and Trastevere, Monti and Testaccio reward anyone who walks away from the big sights.

Nice has a distinctive kitchen too, closer to Liguria than Paris: socca from wood ovens, pissaladière, stuffed vegetables and the morning market on the Cours Saleya. It is a pleasure to eat simply there, but the range is narrower, and the promenade terraces are best avoided.

This is where the two cities are furthest apart. Rome has ancient monuments standing in the middle of town, the Vatican and Sistine Chapel, Bernini's piazzas and the Borghese Gallery, and a week leaves much unseen.

Nice offers a more modest, pleasant mix: the ochre lanes of Vieux Nice, Belle Époque villas, the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, and an excellent modern art trio in the Matisse, Chagall and MAMAC museums. Two or three days cover it comfortably.

Rome gives you more to choose from after dark. The evening starts with aperitivo and carries on in the piazzas, and each quarter has its own crowd: Trastevere's busy wine bars, Monti's smaller cocktail spots, student San Lorenzo and arty Pigneto.

In Nice the night out is mostly the old town's pubs and wine bars, with a few calmer bars at the port and late summer evenings at the beach clubs. It quietens early outside summer. Neither city is a clubbing destination, and in Nice the glossier nights happen in Monaco or Cannes.

Nice has the better outdoors, because the Alps meet the sea right behind it. Coastal paths around Cap Ferrat and Cap d'Ail, cycling on the corniches, the red rocks of the Esterel and the larch forests of the Mercantour are all within reach, and in winter you can ski at Isola 2000 and be back by the sea the same day.

Rome's green spaces are mostly inside the city: the villa parks of Borghese and Pamphili, and the Appian Way, a superb bike ride past tombs and aqueducts. The crater lakes of the Alban Hills and the Apennines need more travel and offer less variety.

Both are outstanding bases, but the trips are different in character. From Nice it is a string of contrasting coastal towns, Monaco, Menton, Èze, Antibes, Saint-Paul-de-Vence and even Sanremo across the Italian border, almost all under an hour by train or bus and with no car needed.

From Rome the trips run through history: Ostia Antica's excavated port, Hadrian's Villa and the fountains of Tivoli, the Etruscan tombs of Tarquinia and cliff-top Orvieto. High-speed trains also put Florence and Naples within a day, which Nice cannot match for range.

Nice is the easier of the two with children, though not by a wide margin. The flat promenade suits pushchairs and bikes, the Promenade du Paillon has playgrounds and water jets, and Parc Phoenix and Castle Hill fill a morning. The pebbles are its main drawback.

Rome makes children welcome at every table, and gladiators, catacombs and the Bioparco in Villa Borghese help. But long queues at the Vatican and Colosseum, cobbles, traffic and summer heat make sightseeing with young children more tiring.

Nice is simpler to get around. The old town, promenade, port and shops sit within a flat half-hour walk, a tram runs straight from the airport to the centre, and coastal trains handle the day trips.

Rome's centre is also best seen on foot, and the walk from the Colosseum to Trastevere is a pleasure in itself. The metro, though, barely reaches the historic core, buses stall in traffic, and cobbles and scooters wear you down by evening.

Nice is a place to browse rather than to shop. The lanes of the old town are good for olive oil, soaps and Provençal fabrics to take home, Avenue Jean Médecin covers everyday needs, and the Monday antiques stalls on the Cours Saleya are the most fun of it. There are only a few fashion houses, though, so anyone set on serious luxury ends up taking the train to Monaco or Cannes.

Rome has the whole range inside the city. The big Italian labels have their own shops a short walk from the Spanish Steps, so a luxury shopper never needs to leave town. Behind them is a real craft tradition of leather, shoes and paper made by hand. Monti has the young, independent side that Nice mostly lacks, and Porta Portese on a Sunday morning is a proper bargain hunt. As in Vieux Nice, though, the main tourist routes are full of souvenir stock.

Neither is cheap, and the costs land in similar places. In Nice it is summer that hurts, with seafront rooms and beach loungers adding up, while cheap trams, regional trains and socca keep the rest of the day reasonable.

Rome's pressure is on small, costly rooms in the centre and steep entry fees at the major sights, and spring and autumn are busy. Free churches, drinking fountains and standing espresso help, and staying outside the centre makes a real difference.

Rome has much more to offer for an evening of music. Opera and ballet move from the Teatro dell'Opera to the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla in summer, the Santa Cecilia orchestra plays at Renzo Piano's Auditorium, and churches host frequent sacred and organ concerts.

Nice has a respectable regional calendar: the red-and-gold Opéra de Nice, the long-established Jazz Festival in July and the February Carnival. Outside those, there is little beyond bar music in the old town.

Neither city has a bathing culture of its own, so relaxation takes different forms. In Nice it comes from the sea: an early swim, thalassotherapy centres along the coast and a calm, mild off-season.

Rome's escape is thermal water rather than the sea, at the sulphur pools of Bagni di Tivoli or the free open-air hot springs around Viterbo. The centre itself is noisy, and the villa gardens and the Aventine are where to find quiet.