Sorrento or Taormina?

Neither town has a beach at its door, and both send you down a lift, cable car or stairway to the water. Sorrento's swimming is mostly from lido platforms built out over deep water at Marina Piccola and Marina Grande, or from the rocks at the Bagni della Regina Giovanna. For a real beach you need a bus or a boat.

Taormina does better for swimmers. The pebble coves at Mazzarò and Isola Bella have glassy water good for snorkelling, and Giardini Naxos and Letojanni add longer stretches of sand and shingle a short bus ride away. In both towns the shore fills up in high summer, so arrive early.

Both cook from their own region, and neither offers much beyond Italian food. Sorrento has Campanian cooking: gnocchi baked with fior di latte, fish all'acqua pazza, lemons in everything, and pizza from nearby Naples. Its best tables are in the hill villages of the peninsula and at the fish restaurants of Marina Grande.

Taormina tastes of Sicily, with pasta alla Norma, raw red prawns, cannoli and the granita-and-brioche breakfast, and it has the volcanic wines of Etna on almost every list. In both towns the main street is lined with tourist menus, and the better meals are found on the side lanes.

Taormina has the stronger sights within its own walls. The Greek theatre, framing Etna and the coast, is one of the great views of the Mediterranean, and Corso Umberto adds the Duomo, Palazzo Corvaja and Badia Vecchia, with their Arab, Norman and Catalan influences.

Sorrento's old centre is pleasant but modest: a cathedral, the cloister of San Francesco, the Museo Correale and the strange ravine of the Vallone dei Mulini. Neither town has a major museum, and in both a day or two covers the lot.

Both are quiet after dark. Evenings mean a passeggiata, an aperitivo and a drink on a terrace over the sea, and the crowd is mostly couples and older visitors. Sorrento adds British-style pubs and piano bars playing Neapolitan song, but a proper night out means staying over in Naples. Taormina's later options are the summer lounge bars and beach clubs down near Mazzarò and Giardini Naxos.

Both have outstanding landscapes, but different ones. Sorrento's outdoors is coast and terraces: footpaths to Punta Campanella and the protected bay of Ieranto, the Path of the Gods above Positano, Monte Faito's beech woods, and boat or kayak trips around Capri's grottoes. Vesuvius is a short climb from the crater car park.

Taormina is all about Etna, a much larger and more active volcano, with lava flows, craters, guided trips towards the summit and even winter skiing. The basalt Alcantara gorges are nearby, and the Isola Bella marine reserve adds diving. In both places, summer heat makes spring and autumn the seasons for hiking.

This is where Sorrento pulls clearly ahead. Pompeii is about half an hour by train, Herculaneum and Vesuvius fit into the same day, Capri is a short ferry ride, and summer boats run to Positano and Amalfi. Naples and its archaeological museum are about an hour away.

Taormina's outings are good but more spread out. Catania is an hour away, while Syracuse and Ortigia take about two hours each way, and Noto needs an early start. The hill villages of Castelmola and Savoca and the wine towns on Etna's slopes make gentler days nearer by.

Sorrento's flat, largely pedestrian centre is the easier of the two with a pushchair, and children tend to love the rattling train out to Pompeii's ruins and the boat across to Capri. The catch is the swimming, which is off piers and rocks into deep water, and many hotels sit on steep lanes without pavements, so a hotel pool matters more here.

Taormina is just as welcoming to children, but the town is all steps and slopes, and the pebbly coves below are crowded in August. Families with small children often stay down in Giardini Naxos for its sandier shore and level streets, while school-age children get the snorkelling at Isola Bella and the lava fields of Etna.

Both centres are small and best on foot, and in both towns a car is more trouble than it is worth. Sorrento's centre is flat. Its Circumvesuviana trains and coast buses reach far, though they are often crowded, and ferries fill the gaps.

Taormina is built on a slope, so stairs come with every outing. Its station is down by the sea and the cable car links the town to the beaches. Etna and the inland villages realistically need a tour or a hired car.

Neither is a shopping destination, and both sell coral, cameos and linen to visitors. Sorrento's local crafts are wood inlay and sandals made to measure, alongside endless lemon souvenirs. Taormina's single street, Corso Umberto, offers Sicilian ceramics such as moor's-head vases, plus pistachio and almond sweets and Etna wines. For serious fashion, Sorrento shoppers go to Naples or Capri, and Taormina shoppers go to Catania.

Both are expensive resorts, with sea-view rooms and terrace restaurants priced for a famous coast. Sorrento is the cheaper base for its area, helped by inexpensive trains and fairly priced pizza on the back lanes. Taormina costs far more than the rest of eastern Sicily, and the usual saving is to sleep down in Giardini Naxos or Letojanni. In both, spring and late autumn bring room rates down.

Taormina has the stronger summer programme, because the Greek theatre still works as a stage. Opera, ballet, concerts and big pop acts play there with Etna behind them, and the town has a long-running film festival.

Sorrento offers tarantella shows put on for visitors, singers in hotel bars and chamber concerts in the San Francesco cloister. Both towns are quiet in winter, when you go to Naples' Teatro di San Carlo or Catania's Teatro Massimo Bellini for the real thing.

Sorrento has the one real thermal option between them: Ischia's terraced hot-spring gardens by the sea are about an hour away by ferry. In town itself, relaxing means a cliff-top hotel spa, a pool above the bay and the slow pace of the lemon groves and old villa gardens.

Taormina's hotel spas add treatments with volcanic mud, citrus and almond, and the shade of the Villa Comunale and an evening watching Etna change colour do the rest. Summer crowds break the calm in both towns, so a restful stay is best planned for spring or autumn.