Portofino or Taormina?

Taormina is the better choice for swimming. The cable car drops you to the clear coves at Mazzarò and Isola Bella, which are good for snorkelling, and Giardini Naxos and Letojanni have longer stretches of sand and shingle a short bus ride away. The Ionian is also a degree or so warmer in late summer.

Portofino has no beach of its own. Swimming means climbing down ladders off the rocks towards the lighthouse into deep, very clear water, or heading for Paraggi, where paid beach clubs take most of the small bay. Getting to San Fruttuoso's pebbles by boat is lovely, but it is an outing, not a daily routine.

Taormina eats better. Sicily gives it pasta alla Norma, raw red prawns, cannoli and the ritual of almond granita, and there are Etna's Nerello Mascalese and Carricante wines to drink with them. There is also a refined upper tier to splurge on, though the best everyday meals are in the side streets rather than on the Corso.

Portofino's Ligurian staples, pesto trofie and Recco's cheese focaccia, are delicious, but the harbour restaurants charge heavily for the yacht view and the cooking is rarely memorable. Keen eaters head over to Camogli or the hill trattorie instead.

Taormina has a genuine headline sight in the Greek theatre, rebuilt by the Romans, with Etna and the coast seen through its broken stage. Around it, Corso Umberto runs between two medieval gates past the Duomo and Palazzo Corvaja.

In Portofino, the sight is the village itself: the painted houses around the harbour, San Giorgio and Castello Brown above them, and the abbey of San Fruttuoso in its roadless cove. Neither town has a major museum, but Taormina gives a curious visitor a fuller day.

Neither town is for clubbing, but Taormina keeps going for longer. After an aperitivo in Piazza IX Aprile and a stroll along the Corso, there are wine bars and piano bars with sea terraces, plus a few late lounge bars down at Mazzarò in summer.

Portofino's evening is a dressed-up drink facing the moored yachts and then dinner. After that the village empties, and for anything later you have to go to Santa Margherita, Rapallo or Genoa.

Both are superb for the outdoors, but in very different ways. Portofino lets you walk straight out of the village into its protected headland, through holm oak and pine to the Semaforo Nuovo viewpoint and down cliff paths, some with chains, to San Fruttuoso. Offshore, divers find red coral walls and the bronze Christ of the Abyss.

Taormina's great draw is Etna, about an hour away. You can walk lava flows and the Silvestri craters, go up towards the summit with a guide or even ski in winter, and the basalt gorges of Alcantara are closer still. In both places the hiking is best in spring and autumn.

Both are excellent bases for day trips, and the difference lies in the kind of outing. From Portofino, days out are short hops by sea or rail along the Riviera di Levante: Camogli, Sestri Levante, the Cinque Terre by summer ferry, and Genoa's palaces in under an hour.

Taormina's trips cover more distance and more history. Syracuse and Ortigia make a full day two hours south, Catania has its lava-stone baroque and fish market, and the wine villages on Etna's northern slopes reward a slow day of cellar visits.

Taormina is somewhat easier with children. The cable car down to the sea, the granita and gelato, snorkelling at Isola Bella and the craters on Etna all appeal to school-age children. Families with toddlers can base themselves in flatter, sandier Giardini Naxos.

Portofino is calm and safe, but nothing there is aimed at children. The little sand at Paraggi mostly belongs to paid clubs, and the steep steps rule out a pushchair, so families usually stay in Santa Margherita or Rapallo and visit Genoa's aquarium.

Both are compact, steep towns where you walk everywhere, but they connect to the outside world differently. Portofino sits at the end of a single narrow road about 5km from Santa Margherita, served by a crowded summer bus. Arriving by ferry from spring to autumn is often the nicer option.

Taormina has its own station down by the sea, on the line to Catania, its airport, Messina and Syracuse, and a cable car links the town to the beaches. Etna and the inland villages, though, really need a tour or a hire car.

Taormina gives you more to browse. Corso Umberto is a full street of coral and cameo dealers, painted moor's-head vases, Caltagirone majolica and edible souvenirs such as Bronte pistachio cream and Etna wine.

Portofino packs a surprising number of big fashion and jewellery names into a few lanes behind the harbour, along with resort wear for the yacht crowd. You can see all of it in under an hour, and for a longer browse locals go to Chiavari or Genoa.

Both are the most expensive spots in their regions, but Portofino is in another league. Its few hotels are mostly luxury properties, and even a lounger at Paraggi or a parking space costs a lot.

Taormina is still pricey in summer, yet it is far easier to manage. Bakery snacks, granita and the buses are cheap, and staying in Giardini Naxos or Letojanni, or coming in spring or autumn, brings the cost down noticeably. In Portofino, the standard way to save is to sleep in Santa Margherita or Camogli.

Taormina has a real summer season in a setting few venues can match. Concerts, opera, ballet and touring pop acts take the stage of the Greek theatre with Etna behind, and the long-running film festival adds to the calendar.

Portofino has only the odd summer concert in the piazzetta or at the castle. For opera or theatre, you have to spend an evening at Genoa's Teatro Carlo Felice. In both places the winter months are quiet.

Neither has a public bathing tradition, so pampering in both means hotel spas, and the real rest comes from the slow pace. Taormina's spas add volcanic mud and citrus treatments on terraces above the sea, and the Villa Comunale gardens offer shade.

In Portofino, the calm is found on the wooded paths of the headland, with birdsong and the sea for company. Both towns lose their peace in the middle of the day at the height of summer, when tour-boat and cruise crowds arrive.