Sicily or Umbria?

This is the widest gap between the two. Sicily has sea on every side and warm water through summer and early autumn. There are sandy bays such as San Vito Lo Capo and Marina di Ragusa, the coves of the Zingaro reserve, the reserve beaches of Vendicari and the clear water around Favignana.

Umbria has no coast at all. Lake Trasimeno's small lidos are calm and shallow for paddling, but the water is cloudy and the bottom muddy in places. For most visitors, the day's swim is in a farmhouse pool, and the sea is a drive of two hours or more.

Both are serious places to eat, but Sicily has more range. Its cooking carries Greek, Arab and Spanish influences, from the street food of Palermo's Ballarò and Capo markets to fish couscous around Trapani and pasta alla Norma in Catania. Cannoli and granita are found everywhere, and Etna wines go with all of it.

Umbria's cooking is narrower and earthier. It means black truffle over strangozzi, Norcia's pork, Castelluccio lentils and porchetta from market vans, with Sagrantino and Orvieto wines tasted at the estates. What it lacks is seafood, which is exactly where Sicily is strongest.

The two are evenly matched in different ways. Sicily's heritage comes from many civilisations and is spread across a large island. It has the Doric temples of Agrigento and Segesta, the Greek theatres of Syracuse and Taormina, the Roman mosaics of Piazza Armerina, the gold Arab-Norman interiors of Palermo and the baroque towns of the south east. Seeing it properly takes about a week and several bases.

Umbria's strength is medieval and Renaissance art, packed into hill towns that sit close together. There are Giotto's frescoes in Assisi, Signorelli's Last Judgement in Orvieto's cathedral and Perugino in Perugia's Galleria Nazionale. It covers fewer eras than Sicily, but you travel far less between masterpieces.

Neither is a clubbing destination, but Sicily has more going on after dinner. The historic centre of Catania fills with students and locals until late, and in Palermo people drink in the street around the Vucciria. In summer, open-air clubs open at Mondello and below Taormina.

In Umbria, the evening ends after a long dinner and a stroll. The exception is Perugia, where students gather on the cathedral steps and in a few late bars.

Sicily's landscape is more dramatic. Umbria has nothing like the lava fields and summit craters of Etna, the evening climb on Stromboli to watch it erupt, or the diving around the Aeolian and Egadi Islands. In high summer, though, Sicily's interior is brown and too hot for walking.

Umbria is gentler, with oak woods and olive groves and the Monti Sibillini rising above the flowering plain of Castelluccio. There is rafting in the Valnerina and the Marmore Falls to visit. It suits walkers and cyclists who prefer green hills to volcanoes.

Umbria has the edge here, because it is small and everything is close. From one base near Perugia or Spoleto you can see a different hill town each day, from Gubbio and Todi to Spello and Norcia. You can also cross into Tuscany for Cortona or Montepulciano, or take the train from Orvieto to Rome.

Sicily has plenty of good outings too, such as Cefalù and Erice from Palermo, the baroque towns around Noto, and ferries to Favignana or the Aeolian Islands. But the island is large, so covering it takes two or three bases and longer drives.

The sea is what tips this towards Sicily. Shallow sandy bays such as Mondello and San Vito Lo Capo suit small children for days on end. Older ones can walk Etna's lava fields, take boat trips around the islands and watch the knights fight in Palermo's puppet theatre.

Umbria works for a quiet stay at a farmhouse with a pool and animals. For outings there are Lake Trasimeno, the Marmore Falls and an amusement park near Perugia. Its steep, cobbled towns are hard work with a pushchair.

Umbria is much the easier of the two. Distances are short and the roads are good and quiet. You park below the walls of the hill towns and ride up by escalator or funicular. Without a car, you can reach the main towns on the rail line through Perugia, Assisi and Spoleto or from Orvieto's station on the Rome to Florence line.

Sicily nearly always means a hire car, with slow inland roads and chaotic traffic in Palermo and Catania. Trains are sparse, and rough seas can cancel the ferries to the islands.

Sicily has the edge, mainly because it has real shopping cities. Palermo's Via Libertà, Catania's Via Etnea and Taormina's Corso Umberto give you three places for clothes. Umbria has only the ordinary chain shops of Perugia's Corso Vannucci. Sicily's food souvenirs also cover more of the island, from Modica chocolate and Bronte pistachio cream to Pantelleria capers, and there are also Trapani's coral and Palermo's puppet makers.

In crafts the two are closer. Caltagirone and Deruta both make painted majolica, and Umbria also has linen woven in Montefalco and Bevagna and cashmere outlets around Perugia. A bag of Norcia hams and truffles and wine bought at the Sagrantino estates is easy to fill in Umbria, but for a day of browsing shops Sicily offers more.

Sicily goes slightly further for the money. Street food and pastry are cheap, and B&Bs in Palermo, Catania and the baroque south east are fairly priced even in summer. Taormina and the Aeolian Islands cost more in July and August.

Umbria is also good value next to its Tuscan neighbour, with fairly priced farmhouse stays, cheap local wine and churches that cost little to visit. In both places, the cost that adds up is a hire car.

Sicily has more to see through the year. Palermo's Teatro Massimo runs a full season of opera and ballet. Greek tragedies are staged in the ancient theatre of Syracuse each spring and early summer, and Taormina's Greek theatre hosts concerts in summer. The opera dei pupi, Sicily's marionette theatre, has no counterpart in Umbria.

Umbria's stage life is concentrated in two summer festivals, Umbria Jazz in Perugia in July and the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. Outside them, its small theatres put on performances only now and then.

Umbria is the better place to slow down, although neither has a real bathing culture and both rely on their pace rather than their spas. Sicily's volcanic waters are more unusual: the hot springs at Sciacca, the mud and warm sea vents of Vulcano and the crater lake on Pantelleria. But most of its spas are in hotels around Taormina and the big resorts, and summer heat and long drives make rest harder. The calm comes from a farmhouse among the olives or a slow island such as Salina.

Umbria makes that quiet easier to find. The region is small, so one country house can be your base with little driving. Assisi and the hermitages on Monte Subasio draw people looking for silence, and the town grows still once the day visitors go. Its small spa towns, Fontecchio, San Gemini and Nocera Umbra, are known for their mineral waters rather than for big thermal pools.