Rome or Taormina?

From Taormina a cable car takes you down to the sea, and the water at Mazzarò and Isola Bella is clear enough for snorkelling. The catch is size: the coves are narrow pebble strips crowded with loungers in summer, and for sand you go to Giardini Naxos or Letojanni.

Rome's coast at Ostia and Fregene has dark volcanic sand and is reached by train, but it is where Romans go at weekends and the water is rarely clear. In Taormina a swim fits into an ordinary day, while from Rome it costs you a day of sightseeing.

Rome eats better and with more depth. It has the four Roman pastas, Jewish-style artichokes in the Ghetto, the offal tradition and covered market of Testaccio, and pizza al taglio everywhere, with whole neighbourhoods such as Trastevere and Monti to eat your way through. What it lacks is good local wine.

Taormina has the more interesting wine, with Etna reds and whites on every list. It also has Sicilian pleasures such as granita and brioche for breakfast, swordfish and cannoli. But it is a small town with many tourist menus along Corso Umberto, and a few days are enough to try the best of it.

This is the widest gap between the two. Rome piles ancient ruins, early Christian mosaics, Renaissance palaces and Bernini's Baroque on top of one another, and adds the Vatican Museums, the Borghese Gallery and Palazzo Massimo. A week still leaves things unseen.

Taormina has one great monument, the Greek theatre with Etna framed behind its stage, and a pleasant medieval Corso with the Duomo and Palazzo Corvaja. You can see it in a day of slow walking. There is no major museum, so if you want more history you go to Syracuse.

Neither city is a clubbing destination, but Rome gives you far more to do after dinner. There are crowded wine bars in Trastevere, cocktail bars in Monti, cheap student drinking in San Lorenzo and an arty crowd in Pigneto, with some clubs in Testaccio and Ostiense.

Evenings in Taormina are an aperitivo in Piazza IX Aprile, a stroll along the Corso and a drink on a terrace over the sea, mostly among couples and older visitors. Apart from August and the beach clubs of high summer, the town goes quiet soon after dinner.

Taormina sits under an active volcano, and that makes the difference. Etna's lava fields, craters, vineyards and ski slopes are about an hour away, and the basalt Alcantara gorges are closer still. The marine reserve at Isola Bella adds snorkelling, kayaking and diving.

Rome's outdoors is gentler and more historical: the villa parks, a bike ride along the Appian Way past tombs and aqueducts, and the crater lakes of Albano and Nemi. The Apennines offer hiking, but they are a longer trip from Rome than Etna is from Taormina.

Both are good bases, but Rome reaches further and has more on its doorstep. Ostia Antica, the villas at Tivoli, the Etruscan tombs at Tarquinia, Orvieto and Civita di Bagnoregio are all within easy range, and fast trains put Florence and Naples about ninety minutes away.

From Taormina the trips run along Sicily's east coast: Catania with its black lava stone, Ortigia and the Greek theatre at Syracuse, baroque Noto, and hill villages such as Savoca. The journeys by coach or car are longer, but they show how varied the island is.

Rome has more ready-made fun for children: the Bioparco zoo and rowing boats in Villa Borghese, a children's museum, and gladiators and catacombs to catch the imagination of older ones. Queues for the big sights, cobbles and summer heat still make long sightseeing days tiring, so an unhurried plan works best.

Taormina suits school-age children who can snorkel at Isola Bella and enjoy a trip up Etna. With toddlers it is harder work, because the town is all steps and the nearby coves are crowded pebble. That is why many families stay down in Giardini Naxos, with its sand and flatter streets.

Both centres are best seen on foot, and neither has public transport to boast about. In Rome the walking distances are longer, the metro skirts the historic core and buses get stuck in traffic, so a day of sightseeing means a long way on cobbles.

Taormina's centre is tiny by comparison, but it is built on a slope, so every outing involves stairs. The cable car to Mazzarò and the coastal trains cover the basics, while Etna and the inland villages realistically need a tour or a hired car.

Rome is a real shopping city. The fashion houses line the streets around the Spanish Steps, the chains are on Via del Corso, Monti has independent designers and vintage, Via dei Coronari has antiques, and Porta Portese holds a huge flea market on Sundays.

Taormina's shopping is one street, Corso Umberto, selling mostly coral, cameos, linen and Sicilian ceramics to visitors. It is good for pistachio cream, Etna wine and a painted moor's-head vase, but for serious fashion you go to Catania.

Rome is the cheaper of the two, though neither is a bargain, and the gap is widest on rooms. Rome's centre is costly and cramped, but a large city has whole districts beyond it where Romans live and visitors can sleep for less. Taormina is too small for that, and its sea-view hotels set prices for the whole town, so a cheaper bed means staying down on the coast and taking the bus up the hill each evening. The seasons work differently too: Rome's rooms are hardest to find in spring and autumn, which is exactly when Taormina's become easier to afford.

Eating follows the same pattern. Rome's standing espresso, pizza al taglio and plain trattoria lunches stay fair in any neighbourhood away from the big sights, while in Taormina only granita, bakery snacks and the buses stay cheap. Sightseeing is where Rome costs more, because the Vatican, the Colosseum and the Borghese add up over a week. In Taormina the Greek theatre is the one big entry fee, and the Duomo, the Corso and the Villa Comunale gardens cost nothing.

Rome has a classical scene that runs through the year. There is opera and ballet at the Teatro dell'Opera, the Santa Cecilia orchestra at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, sacred concerts in churches and a long-running jazz club scene. In summer the opera moves outdoors to the Baths of Caracalla.

Taormina has one extraordinary stage, and only in summer. Concerts, opera and pop shows in the Greek theatre with Etna behind are memorable, but outside summer there is little beyond chamber music and piano bars.

Neither has a bathing culture of its own, so the difference is in the setting. Rome has hotel spas and day spas in a loud, crowded centre. For real thermal water you go out to Bagni di Tivoli or the hot springs around Viterbo, and in town the quiet places are the villa gardens and the Aventine.

Taormina's hotel spas have terrace pools above the sea and treatments using volcanic mud and citrus, and the slow pace of the town is restful in itself. That calm holds in May, June and late September, but in August the Corso fills with cruise and day-trip crowds.