Amalfi or Bergamo?

Amalfi is the only one of the two where the sea is part of the trip. Marina Grande is a pebble beach crowded with beach-club loungers. The better swimming is at Atrani or in coves like Santa Croce, reached by stairs or shuttle boat, and a hired boat takes you to rocks and grottoes the road never reaches.

Bergamo has no coast at all. Swimming means a day at the lidos of Lake Iseo or the Lecco arm of Lake Como, on grass or concrete platforms, in water a little cooler than Amalfi's sea in midsummer.

The two kitchens could hardly be further apart. Amalfi cooks with lemons, anchovies, colatura and seafood scialatielli. Bergamo serves mountain food: casoncelli in sage butter, polenta, game, and valley cheeses such as Taleggio and Strachitunt.

Bergamo has more depth. The Città Alta's cheese counters and pastry shops, the lower town's aperitivo bars and a fine-dining tier in the province give you more choice than Amalfi's small town, where the piazza tables often serve average food and the good trattorias have to be sought out.

Bergamo is the stronger city for sightseeing. The Città Alta is an almost complete hilltop town inside UNESCO-listed Venetian walls, with Piazza Vecchia, the Cappella Colleoni's marble front and the Accademia Carrara's Old Masters below. Together they easily fill a day or two.

Amalfi's heritage is the legacy of its maritime republic: the striped Duomo with its Constantinople bronze doors, the Chiostro del Paradiso, the Arsenale and the paper mill. It is striking, but most people have seen it by lunchtime.

Neither is a place for a big night out, but Bergamo at least has evenings with some life in them. A long aperitivo leads on to wine bars around Via XX Settembre and Borgo Santa Caterina, students keep a few places busy, and in summer people drink along the walls until about midnight.

Amalfi goes quiet once the last ferries and buses have left. You get a drink or a gelato on Piazza Duomo, and for anything more you would have to go to Salerno or Naples, just as Bergamo's clubbers go to Milan.

Amalfi's scenery is the more dramatic, and you can walk into it from your door. Mountains drop straight into the sea. The Valle delle Ferriere gorge starts behind the town, the Path of the Gods looks out towards Capri, and kayaks reach the sea caves.

Bergamo leads into a different kind of landscape: the Orobie Alps, with rifugi, high lakes, small winter ski areas, and lake and foothill cycling. There is more room to explore, but for most of the mountains you need a car.

Both make excellent bases, so the real difference is what lies around them. From Amalfi you reach some of Italy's most famous places: Ravello, Positano and Capri by boat, Paestum's temples, and Pompeii and Herculaneum. The catch is that ferries mainly run from spring to autumn and the summer road is slow.

Bergamo's outings are mostly by train and run all year. Milan and the Last Supper are under an hour away, then come Lake Como and Lake Iseo's Monte Isola, Crespi d'Adda, Brescia, Cremona's violin makers and Verona.

Bergamo is much easier with children. The funiculars up to the Città Alta and San Vigilio are a treat, the walls make an easy gelato walk, and Leolandia's rides and Le Cornelle's animals are close by. Only the cobbled upper lanes are hard with a buggy.

In Amalfi the steps rule out pushchairs, the beach is a crowded strip of pebbles, and the winding buses can make children carsick. It works better for confident older swimmers who will enjoy the boats and sea caves.

Bergamo has the better transport. Funiculars link its two levels, buses run to the station and the nearby airport, a light-rail line goes up Val Seriana, and direct trains reach Milan, Brescia and Lecco.

Amalfi itself is tiny and easy to walk, if you can handle the stairs. The trouble starts when you leave it: in summer the buses fill and pass queues by, the single cliff road jams and parking is almost impossible. Seasonal ferries are the most pleasant way to move along the coast.

Bergamo has a little more range. Arcaded Via XX Settembre and the Sentierone carry Italian chains and mid-range fashion, while the upper town's lane is lined with cheese, salumi and wine shops. Amalfi has a single street of limoncello, lemon soap and ceramics, with much of the same stock in shop after shop.

Amalfi's best buys are more personal, though: handmade cotton paper from the valley mills, hand-painted majolica and sandals made to measure. Neither town has luxury shopping.

Bergamo costs far less. Lower-town hotels are fairly priced, which is why many people use it as a base for Lombardy, and trattorias, aperitivo bars and the funicular are all reasonable. Only the Città Alta and summer weekends cost more.

Amalfi is among the dearest places to stay in Italy. Sea-view rooms, meals on the piazza, loungers and boat hire all cost a lot. Staying in the hill villages or going in spring or autumn helps, but it never becomes cheap.

Amalfi itself has no theatre or concert hall, and for most of the year there is little to attend beyond church concerts and the band music of the Sant'Andrea processions. Summer brings the Ravello Festival, a short ride up the hill, with orchestral and chamber concerts on the Villa Rufolo terrace high above the sea. The setting alone makes it an evening worth planning around.

As Donizetti's birthplace, Bergamo has far more on stage. The Teatro Donizetti runs a proper season of opera, concerts and theatre, with an autumn festival of his works, and the Teatro Sociale in the Città Alta adds smaller productions. Bergamo Jazz comes in spring, and La Scala in Milan is close enough for a night at the opera.

Without a bathing tradition of its own, Amalfi has only its cliffside hotel spas, and these mostly keep their pools and treatment rooms for their own guests. The calm comes instead from long lunches on a shaded terrace and swims from the rocks, best in May or October, when the centre is quieter than in July and August.

Two historic spa towns within reach give Bergamo the edge for a restful trip. San Pellegrino Terme, about forty minutes up Val Brembana, has its grand Belle Époque thermal spa, and the sulphur springs at Trescore Balneario have been used since Roman times. Back in town, early mornings on the Città Alta walls are quiet.