Piran or Siena?

Piran wins easily for swimming. The sea is right below the old walls, and you climb down ladders and rocks into clear water, with the small pebble cove at Fiesa a short walk away. For sand and sunbeds you go to Portoroz along the shore, and for somewhere quieter there is the cliff-backed coast at Strunjan. There is no long sandy beach anywhere, but you are never more than a few minutes from a swim.

Siena is inland. The Maremma coast is well over an hour's drive away, so most visitors swim in the pool at their hotel or agriturismo, if they swim at all.

Siena eats noticeably better. There is hand-rolled pici with duck ragù, cinta senese pork, bakeries selling panforte and ricciarelli, and Chianti Classico and Brunello by the glass in the enoteche. The family osterie in the contrade reward a little searching.

Piran's strength is simple seafood, such as scampi buzara and grilled fish, with local salt, olive oil and Malvazija. The harbour menus look much alike, though, and you would leave town for anything more ambitious.

Siena is in another league here. Its whole centre is a UNESCO-listed medieval city, and you could spend two or three days on the Duomo, the Palazzo Pubblico frescoes, Santa Maria della Scala and the Pinacoteca, with the contrade giving each quarter its own identity.

Piran's old town is charming in its own right, with Venetian Gothic houses around Tartini Square, St George's above the bay and a view from the walls. Its museums are small, and a single day of wandering covers it.

Neither town is for clubbing, but Siena has a little more going on after dark. Students keep a few pubs and wine bars busy, and the Palio nights fill the streets until late. Piran's evening is a sunset glass on the Punta before the town goes quiet, and for anything livelier you go to Portoroz's beach bars and casino.

Siena has the grander landscape. The Crete Senesi and the Val d'Orcia are classic Tuscan country, and the white strade bianche roads draw serious cyclists, with Monte Amiata within reach for forest walks.

Piran's outdoors is smaller in scale and centred on the water. You can paddle beneath the Strunjan flysch cliffs, watch birds among the Secovlje salt pans, cycle the Parenzana inland, or head for the Karst and the Skocjan caves about an hour away.

Both make good bases, but Siena is exceptional. Florence, San Gimignano, Volterra, the Chianti villages, Montalcino, Pienza and abbeys like San Galgano and Sant'Antimo are all within easy reach, so you could fill a week and barely repeat yourself.

Piran's appeal is the three borders. You can reach Trieste in under an hour, the Croatian Istrian towns of Rovinj and Motovun, Predjama Castle and Ljubljana, and take a summer boat to Venice. In both places, a car makes most of this far easier.

Piran is the more relaxed choice with children. The seafront is flat and closed to cars, the water is calm in summer, and the aquarium and Portoroz's shallow sandy beach help fill a few days.

Siena suits older children who enjoy climbing the Torre del Mangia and watching the contrada drummers. With small ones, though, the steep streets and lack of attractions push most families out to a farmhouse with a pool.

You walk everywhere in both towns, and in both you would want a hire car for the countryside. Piran is compact and car-free. The seafront is flat and you can cross the whole old town in a quarter of an hour, though the lanes up to St George's are steep. A shuttle runs in from the garage and along to Portoroz, but there is no railway and the regional buses are slow.

Siena makes you work harder. Its centre spreads over three ridges, with stepped lanes between them and escalators climbing up from the station in the valley. In return, it has a useful bus link to Florence that Piran cannot match.

Siena has a little more to browse. Banchi di Sopra and Via di Città have Italian shoes, leather and stationery, there are majolica ceramics and contrada scarves, and a big weekly market by the Fortezza. In Piran it comes down to a few craft shops and harbour souvenir stalls, so the best things to take home are salt flower from the Secovlje pans, olive oil and coastal wine.

Costs are similar, and both towns charge most for rooms in the old centre in high summer. In Piran the main free pleasures are swimming and walking, and staying in Portoroz saves money. In Siena the cathedral and civic museum tickets add up, so staying in an agriturismo outside the walls is the usual way to spend less.

Siena has the fuller programme. The Accademia Chigiana's summer concerts in palaces and churches, Siena Jazz, and winter drama at the Teatro dei Rinnovati and the Teatro dei Rozzi give it music all year round.

Piran's musical life mostly follows the summer. There are Tartini concerts in churches, the monastery cloister and on the square, and only the occasional recital at the small theatre once autumn comes.

Both places are good for slowing down, but the water you soak in is different. Piran's is the sea. There are brine baths and salt-pan mud in Portoroz, an open-air thalasso spa among the lagoons and a seawater resort at Strunjan, all within a short ride of the car-free lanes.

Siena's is the volcanic heat of southern Tuscany. Rapolano's travertine pools, the medieval bath at Bagno Vignoni and the free limestone pools of Bagni San Filippo each need a drive, and they go well with a rural spa stay.