Amalfi or Assisi?

Amalfi has the sea on its doorstep. There are the pebbles of Marina Grande below the Duomo steps, Atrani's small beach a short walk away, and coves and grottoes reached by stairway or boat. Expect pebbles rather than sand and rows of loungers in high summer, but the water is clear and warm.

Assisi sits inland in the Umbrian hills, about two hours from either coast. The closest swimming is at the lidos on Lake Trasimeno, where the water is shallow and rather cloudy, so most visitors make do with a hotel or agriturismo pool.

Neither town has a broad dining scene, but Amalfi has the edge, with the sea at the centre of its cooking: scialatielli with clams, anchovies, colatura from Cetara, and sfusato lemons in everything from cakes to limoncello. The best tables are in the alleys, not on the piazza.

Assisi cooks from the land instead: black truffle on strangozzi, wild boar, lentils from Castelluccio, olive oil from Subasio and Sagrantino from Montefalco. Near the basilicas, set menus for tour groups are common, and the better meals are found on side lanes or out in the countryside.

Here Assisi is in another league. The Basilica of San Francesco is one of Europe's great monuments: a dim Lower Church painted by Cimabue and Simone Martini, and an Upper Church with the life of Francis traditionally attributed to Giotto. Santa Chiara, the Temple of Minerva, the Rocca Maggiore and the Porziuncola chapel below the town fill a second day.

Amalfi's heritage comes from its days as a maritime republic: the Arab-Norman Duomo with its bronze doors from Constantinople, the Chiostro del Paradiso, the Arsenale and the paper museum. It is handsome but compact, and you can see it all in half a day.

After dinner in Amalfi, a summer evening can run on a little longer. Once the gelato crowd thins on Piazza Duomo and along the harbour, a few wine and cocktail bars stay open late. That is as far as it goes, though. The town goes quiet when the last buses and ferries leave, and a real night out means going to Salerno or Naples.

Assisi winds down even earlier. You might have a glass of Sagrantino in a small wine bar and then walk through floodlit lanes that are empty by eleven. Many visitors come for exactly that hush. Anyone who wants bars and late hours should stay in Perugia, the student city half an hour away.

Amalfi has the more dramatic landscape. The Lattari mountains fall straight into the sea, the Valle delle Ferriere gorge begins at the back of town, and the Sentiero degli Dei above Positano is one of Europe's great coastal walks. Add the mule stairways up to Ravello and kayak trips into sea caves such as the Emerald Grotto.

Assisi's outdoors is gentler. Monte Subasio rises behind the town, with a path through holm oaks to the Eremo delle Carceri and on to open summit meadows. The valley below is easy cycling country among olive groves and vineyards, while the wilder Valnerina and the Sibillini need a car.

Both towns make excellent bases, but the trips differ in kind. From Amalfi they follow the coast: Ravello's villa gardens up the hill, Positano and Capri by ferry, the Greek temples at Paestum and, with some planning, Pompeii and Herculaneum. Ferries run mainly in the warmer months, and summer traffic on the coast road is slow.

From Assisi you tour the hill towns: Spello, Perugia, Spoleto, Gubbio, Todi and Orvieto, with the Montefalco wine villages and Deruta's ceramics close by. Trains serve the towns along the valley, and a car opens up the rest.

Both are hard going with small children, for much the same reasons: steep, stepped streets where a pushchair is useless, and almost nothing laid on for children. The difference lies in what older children get out of each.

In Amalfi, confident swimmers get boat trips, sea caves and swimming, but also crowded pebble beaches and winding buses that can bring on carsickness. In Assisi they get the castle and a walk up Subasio, and families usually stay at a valley agriturismo with a pool.

Assisi is the slightly easier of the two. You can walk its centre end to end in twenty minutes, though it is steep. Cars stay outside the walls, with parking and lifts at the edges, and regional trains run along the valley from the station 4km below. Beyond that line buses are sparse, so a car helps.

Amalfi is walkable too, but almost every route involves steps. Its buses and ferries are stretched in summer, when full buses pass waiting queues and the single cliff road clogs up. A car there is more trouble than it is worth.

Amalfi's main street climbs from Piazza Duomo past shop after shop of limoncello, lemon soap and painted ceramics, and much of the stock repeats. Look past it, though, and Amalfi has more worth buying than Assisi. You can find handmade cotton paper from the mills in the valley, hand-painted majolica, linen clothing and sandals made to measure.

In Assisi, the lanes around the basilicas are full of rosaries, Tau crosses and other Franciscan souvenirs. Among them you can find Umbrian linens with traditional Assisi embroidery, ceramics from Deruta, olive oil, truffle products and Sagrantino. Neither town has fashion or luxury shopping.

Assisi costs far less. The basilicas are free to enter, convent guesthouses offer plain, clean rooms, and valley agriturismi are good value. Only the restaurants nearest the basilicas and hotel rooms around Easter push prices up.

Amalfi is one of the most expensive places to stay in Italy. Sea-view rooms in summer cost about as much as in the dearest capitals, and loungers, boat hire and meals on the piazza all add up. Coming in spring or autumn, staying in a hill village and eating in back-street trattorias softens the bill, but it never becomes cheap.

Amalfi's best evening of music is up the hill in Ravello. The long-running Ravello Festival holds orchestral and chamber concerts on a garden terrace of Villa Rufolo above the sea, and it is worth planning a summer evening around. Amalfi itself has no theatre. Outside summer there is little beyond church concerts and the processions and band music of the feast of Sant'Andrea.

Assisi's music belongs to its churches. There are organ recitals and choral concerts in the Basilica of San Francesco around the religious feasts, and in spring the Calendimaggio festival fills the town with medieval costume and song. A theatre down in Santa Maria degli Angeli puts on musicals and touring shows. For opera or the summer jazz festival, people go to Perugia.

In Amalfi, rest means the sea and a terrace: long lunches in the shade, a swim from the rocks and a quiet morning before the day visitors arrive. Spa treatments are mostly found in the cliff hotels and are kept mainly for their own guests. In July and August the centre is crowded and noisy, so for calm you need the hill hamlets or the months of May and October.

Assisi offers the deeper quiet. Early mornings and evenings are close to silent once the tour groups have gone. People come for retreats in convent guesthouses and silent walks to the Eremo delle Carceri. A few country hotels in the valley have spas, but the calm comes from the place itself, not from treatments.