Rome or Siena?

Rome at least has a sea within easy reach. Ostia is about half an hour by suburban train, with long beaches of dark volcanic sand, mostly paid lidos, and water around 25°C in summer, though it is rarely clear. For prettier coves you need to go further south to Sperlonga or Sabaudia.

From Siena the sea is a real expedition. The Maremma beaches near Castiglione della Pescaia are well over an hour by car, so a swim takes the whole day, and most visitors settle for an agriturismo pool instead.

Rome has the stronger and more varied table: carbonara, cacio e pepe, amatriciana and gricia, artichokes fried in the old Ghetto, Testaccio's offal dishes, and street food from pizza al taglio to supplì. The catch is the area around the big sights, so the good eating is in Trastevere, Monti and Testaccio.

Siena's Tuscan cooking is good but narrower: hand-rolled pici, ribollita, cinta senese pork and a fine baking tradition of panforte and ricciarelli. Where it beats Rome is wine. Chianti Classico, Brunello and Vino Nobile all grow close by, while Rome's local Frascati is modest.

Rome holds almost three thousand years in one city: the Colosseum, Forum and Pantheon, early Christian mosaics, the Baroque of Bernini and Borromini, and the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and Borghese Gallery. A week still leaves most of it unseen.

Siena offers something different, one era preserved almost whole. Its UNESCO-listed medieval centre, the shell-shaped Campo, Lorenzetti's Good and Bad Government frescoes, the striped Duomo and Duccio's Maestà make a rich and coherent visit, but two or three days cover it well.

Both cities centre the evening on a long dinner and a glass outdoors, but Rome keeps going much longer. Trastevere's lanes stay crowded until late, Monti has small cocktail and wine bars, San Lorenzo and Pigneto add student and arty crowds, and there is some clubbing around Testaccio and Ostiense.

Siena's centre is usually quiet before midnight, with a few student pubs and wine bars and almost no clubs. The nights around the Palio, when the contrade dine outdoors, are the one real exception.

Siena has the better countryside, and it starts at the town walls. The bare clay hills of the Crete Senesi and the UNESCO-listed Val d'Orcia are classic Tuscan scenery, and the white gravel strade bianche make it a real destination for cyclists, with the Via Francigena and the Montagnola woods for walkers.

Rome's green is mostly inside the city: the villa parks of Borghese, Pamphili and Ada, and the Appian Way, a superb bike ride past tombs and aqueducts. Beyond that, the crater lakes of the Alban Hills are close and the Apennines are about ninety minutes away.

Both are outstanding bases, and the difference is in how you travel. From Rome, trains do the work: Ostia Antica and Tivoli are close, Orvieto and the Etruscan tombs of Tarquinia lie north, and high-speed trains reach Florence and Naples in about ninety minutes.

Siena's trips are smaller in scale and denser: San Gimignano, Monteriggioni, the Chianti villages, Pienza, Montalcino and abbeys such as San Galgano and Sant'Antimo are all close. Most of these hill towns and wineries are far easier with a car, and Florence is the only big city in easy reach.

Neither is built for children, but Rome has more to keep them busy. Villa Borghese has the Bioparco zoo, rowing boats and room to run, there is a children's museum near Piazza del Popolo, and gladiators, catacombs and the Mouth of Truth help with the ancient sights. Long queues, heat and cobbles still make it tiring.

Siena is safe, compact and largely car-free, and older children enjoy climbing the Torre del Mangia, but it has no zoo or attractions made for children, and its steep lanes are hard with a pushchair. Families often do better at a farmhouse with a pool, coming into town for half days.

Both are best seen on foot, but the scale differs. Rome's walking centre is larger, and its metro has few lines and barely enters the core, so buses and trams stuck in traffic fill the gaps. A car only gets in the way.

Siena is small and mostly closed to traffic, though its three ridges mean steep climbs, and escalators link the station in the valley to the upper town. The catch comes beyond the walls: trains are slow and few, and the countryside really needs a hire car.

Rome is a proper shopping city. The big Italian fashion houses line Via Condotti and the streets around the Spanish Steps, Via del Corso has the chains, Monti has independent designers and vintage, and the Sunday Porta Portese flea market is vast.

Siena is pleasant but modest: clothing, leather and stationery shops on Banchi di Sopra, hand-painted majolica, contrada scarves, and food to take home such as panforte, pecorino and wine. The weekly market around the Fortezza Medicea is the liveliest shopping it has.

Both are fairly expensive for Italy, and in both cases rooms are the main cost. Rome's centre has small, costly rooms and steep entry fees at the big sights, but free drinking fountains, cheap standing espresso and churches full of masterpieces open to all soften it.

In Siena, rooms inside the walls are scarce and cost more in summer and around the Palio, and the cathedral and civic museums each charge. The best saving is to stay in an agriturismo or a nearby town, which suits a countryside trip anyway.

Rome has the bigger stage. The Teatro dell'Opera runs opera and ballet through winter and moves to the Baths of Caracalla in summer, the Santa Cecilia orchestra plays at Renzo Piano's Auditorium Parco della Musica, and there are jazz clubs and frequent church concerts.

Siena's music is serious for a town its size, built around two schools: the Accademia Chigiana, with summer concerts in palaces and churches, and Siena Jazz. The Teatro dei Rinnovati and Teatro dei Rozzi fill the winter, but for opera or a major orchestra you go to Florence.

Siena is the better place to slow down, mainly because of the springs around it. Rapolano Terme's travertine pools are half an hour away, Bagno Vignoni has its steaming medieval bath, and Bagni San Filippo and Petriolo's hot river are free. Evenings in town are quiet once the day visitors leave.

Rome offers hotel spas and hammam-style day spas, the sulphur pools of Bagni di Tivoli and free hot springs near Viterbo about ninety minutes away. Its centre is loud, so the calm comes from long lunches, the villa gardens and the Aventine.