Nice or Siena?

On beaches the two cities are worlds apart. Nice has about 7km of pebble shore directly below the promenade, with clear water from early summer to mid-autumn and loungers to rent on the private stretches. Sandier coves at Villefranche, Beaulieu and Juan-les-Pins are an easy train or bus ride away.

Siena is inland, and the sea plays no part in a stay there. The Maremma beaches are well over an hour's drive, so a swim takes a whole day, and in town swimming means a hotel or agriturismo pool.

Both cities eat well on their own regional cooking, and neither has the range of a big food capital. What differs is the kind of food. Nice cooks close to Liguria: socca hot from wood ovens, pissaladière, stuffed vegetables and a morning market on the Cours Saleya.

Siena is a place for pici, cinta senese pork, wild boar and its old baking tradition of panforte and ricciarelli. It also has the stronger wine, with Chianti Classico, Brunello and Vino Nobile poured in its enoteche, where Nice has only the small Bellet vineyards. In both cities, avoid the restaurants on the main square or the promenade.

Siena offers the greater culture trip. Its whole walled centre is a UNESCO-listed medieval city, built around the Campo, the Palazzo Pubblico with Lorenzetti's Good and Bad Government, the Duomo, and Duccio's Maestà in the cathedral museum. The seventeen contrade, each with its own flag and fountain, give the streets a life that goes beyond the monuments.

Nice is stronger on modern art: the Matisse Museum in Cimiez, Chagall's biblical cycle and MAMAC. Around them are the Savoyard old town and the villas of the Belle Époque resort. It is enjoyable for two or three days but has nothing to match Siena's major works.

Neither is a clubbing city, but Nice has more to do after dark. The lanes of Vieux Nice fill with wine bars, pubs and cocktail bars, and in summer the beach clubs and the promenade keep people out late. Monaco and Cannes are close for a smarter night.

In Siena, an evening means dinner, a glass on the Campo and a walk home through quiet streets. The town only stays up late around the Palio, when the contrade hold their long street dinners.

Nice has the wider range outdoors because the Alps meet the sea there. You can walk the coastal paths around Cap Ferrat in the morning and reach the larch forests and high lakes of the Mercantour in about two hours. In winter there is skiing at Isola 2000, and sailing, diving and kayaking are easy to arrange on the coast.

Siena's countryside is gentler and more pastoral: the bare clay hills of the Crete Senesi, the rolling Val d'Orcia and the white strade bianche gravel roads that draw cyclists. It has no high mountains and no coastline, though Monte Amiata adds beech forest and a little skiing.

Both are excellent bases, and Siena has the richer choice. Florence, San Gimignano, Volterra, Montalcino, Pienza and Montepulciano are all near, along with the Chianti villages and the abbeys of Sant'Antimo and San Galgano. The catch is that many of the hill towns and wineries are much easier with a car.

Nice's day trips are fewer in kind but easier to reach. Monaco, Menton, Antibes and Cannes are on the coastal railway, buses climb to Èze and Saint-Paul-de-Vence, and Italy is a train ride away, so you don't need a car for any of them.

Nice is the easier city with children. The flat promenade suits pushchairs and bikes, the Promenade du Paillon has playgrounds and water jets for hot days, and Parc Phoenix and Monaco's aquarium fill half days. The pebbles are hard on small feet, though.

Siena is safe and mostly free of cars, but it has no attractions made for children, and its steep streets are tiring with a pushchair. Older children enjoy climbing the Torre del Mangia and watching the contrada drummers. Many families stay at a countryside farmhouse with a pool and visit the town in half days.

Nice is simpler to get around. The centre is flat and walkable, a tram runs straight from the airport to the port, and regional trains run the length of the coast. You only need a car for the mountains.

Siena's centre is small and largely closed to traffic, but it stands on three ridges, so short distances involve steep climbs, and escalators link the upper town to the station in the valley. Trains are slow and infrequent, buses cover Florence, and most visitors hire a car for the countryside.

Nice has more to offer shoppers. Avenue Jean Médecin and its department store handle the high street, the streets around rue Paradis have the luxury fashion houses, and the Cours Saleya turns into an antiques and flea market on Mondays.

Siena is for small, local buys: hand-painted majolica, contrada scarves, panforte, pecorino and wine, plus a large weekly market by the Fortezza Medicea. There are no luxury streets and no department store worth the visit.

Neither is cheap, but Siena is a little easier on the budget. Rooms inside its walls are scarce and cost more in summer and around the Palio, but osteria lunches with house wine are good value, and staying at an agriturismo or in a nearby town usually costs less. The cathedral and civic museum tickets add up over a visit.

Nice is dearer by southern European standards, especially for summer rooms near the sea and for beach loungers. Its cheap trams, coastal trains and low museum entry fees help, as do socca and market picnics away from the seafront.

Nice has the fuller programme. The Opéra de Nice stages opera, ballet and philharmonic concerts, the Nice Jazz Festival is one of Europe's oldest and takes place each July, and the February Carnival is a long-standing tradition of parades and flower battles.

Siena's musical life is serious but small. The Accademia Chigiana puts on summer concerts in palaces and churches, Siena Jazz adds performances by its teachers and students, and two historic theatres run winter seasons. For opera or a major orchestra, you go to Florence.

Siena is better for a restful trip, because of the thermal water nearby. There are travertine pools at Rapolano Terme half an hour away, the steaming medieval bath at Bagno Vignoni, the free white limestone pools of Bagni San Filippo and the hot sulphur river at Petriolo.

Nice has no bathing tradition of its own, so spa time means hotel treatment rooms or thalassotherapy centres along the coast. Its kind of calm is an early swim and an evening walk on the promenade, and that works best outside high summer.