Amalfi or Cortina d'Ampezzo?

Amalfi has real sea swimming from May into October. There are the pebbles of Marina Grande under the Duomo, Atrani's beach a short walk away, and coves like Santa Croce reached by stairs or shuttle boat. It is not a long sandy shore, and in summer the loungers crowd out most of the free stretches.

Cortina has nothing like it. The Adriatic is more than two hours' drive away, and lakes such as Ghedina stay snowmelt-cold even in July, so a swim usually means the hotel pool.

Both towns eat well for their size, but from very different larders. Amalfi cooks with lemons, anchovies, colatura and scialatielli with clams, washed down with whites from Furore. The places on the piazza often serve average cooking to day visitors, though, and the better trattorias take some finding.

Cortina's table is Ampezzan mountain food: casunziei with poppy seeds, polenta with game and barley soup, best eaten on a rifugio terrace among the peaks. The valley restaurants cater to a wealthy crowd, so the cooking is polished but rarely cheap or varied.

Amalfi has more to see, thanks to its past as a maritime republic. There is the striped Duomo with its bronze doors from Constantinople, the Chiostro del Paradiso, the old Arsenale and the paper museum up the Valle dei Mulini. Even so, it fills only about half a day.

Cortina's centre has a basilica, painted houses and the ice stadium from the 1956 Olympics, and the Rimoldi art collection is the best of its small museums. Its most striking history, the First World War tunnels on Lagazuoi, lies up in the mountains rather than in town.

Neither town is a place for nights out, but Cortina has a little more going on. After the lifts close there is après-ski and a crowded passeggiata on the Corso Italia, and in the peak winter weeks a few smart bars and a club stay open late.

Amalfi's evenings stop at dinner and a drink on Piazza Duomo, and the town goes quiet once the last ferries leave. For a proper night out you would have to go to Salerno or Naples.

Amalfi's landscape is a coast of sea cliffs. The Lattari mountains drop into the Tyrrhenian, cut with lemon terraces, the Valle delle Ferriere gorge and old mule stairways up to Ravello and Pontone. The Path of the Gods above Positano is the walk worth planning around, and kayaks slip into sea caves such as the Emerald Grotto. In summer, though, the exposed trails are punishing in the heat.

Cortina's setting is on a grander scale and works in every season. The Dolomites ring the valley, lifts climb from town onto the Tofane and Cristallo, and the Tre Cime and Lago di Misurina are under an hour away. Winter means the Dolomiti Superski slopes, and summer means the Alta Via 1, hut-to-hut hiking, via ferrata and climbing.

Amalfi sits at the centre of one of Italy's most famous stretches of coast. Ravello is a short bus ride up the hill, Positano is half an hour by ferry, Capri is within reach in season, and Paestum, Pompeii and Herculaneum each fit into a full day. The catch is the slow summer road and ferries that run mainly from spring to autumn.

From Cortina, most outings head into the mountains. San Candido and Brunico in South Tyrol are close, Bolzano and its Iceman are about two hours away, and Venice makes a long day by coach.

Cortina is the easier choice with children, as long as they ski or walk. There are ski schools, beginner slopes at Socrepes and public skating at the ice stadium, and in summer there are lake walks, meadows by the huts and a rope park. Wet days drag, though, as nothing there is built for children indoors.

Amalfi is harder going. Pushchairs are useless on the stairways, the beach is a crowded strip of pebbles, and the winding buses can upset small stomachs. Older children who swim well will still enjoy the boat trips and sea caves.

Both centres are small enough to walk, but Amalfi's is all steps and covered alleys, while Cortina's is flat. Amalfi is the hub of its coast, with buses to Ravello and Positano and ferries in season. In summer, though, the buses fill up and the cliff road jams, and a car is more trouble than it is worth.

Cortina has no railway, so you arrive by coach from Venice or after a long drive. In winter, ski buses and lifts serve the slopes well, but buses to the passes and the Tre Cime are limited, and many visitors hire a car.

Cortina's shopping is the more polished. The Corso Italia has luxury fashion, jewellers and upmarket mountain wear, and its anchor is the Cooperativa di Cortina, a store since 1893. Wood carving and filigree cover local craft.

Amalfi's one main street sells the same limoncello and ceramics from shop to shop. The finds worth having are its handmade cotton paper, majolica and made-to-measure sandals, but there is no fashion shopping to speak of.

Both are among the most expensive places to stay in Italy, so neither suits a tight budget. Amalfi is slightly less punishing. The local buses are cheap, and staying in the hill villages, eating in back-street trattorias and coming in spring or autumn all bring costs down.

Cortina adds lift passes and equipment hire to luxury-resort hotel rates in winter and August. Meals at the rifugi and visits in early summer or late September are the main ways to save.

Amalfi has the better evening out, thanks to the summer Ravello Festival, with orchestral and chamber concerts on a garden terrace at Villa Rufolo high above the sea. Beyond that there are church concerts and the processions for Sant'Andrea. Cortina has no theatre or regular venue, and its summer chamber festivals, talks and the odd concert around Christmas and New Year add up to a thinner programme.

Neither town has thermal springs or a bathing tradition, so rest comes down to hotel spas and the pace of the place. In Amalfi the treatment rooms belong to a few luxury hotels on the cliffs, and unless you are staying in one they are mostly out of reach. Relaxing here means the sea and the table: an early dip before the town fills up, then a lunch that runs well into the afternoon. In high summer the centre is far from restful, so anyone after quiet should look to the villages above town or come in May or October.

Cortina is the better choice for spa time. Saunas and hay baths come as standard in its Alpine hotels, so warming up after a day of skiing or hiking is part of the routine rather than a treat you have to plan. Calm is also easier to find here. Outside the peak winter weeks and August the valley quietens, and an afternoon in the sun outside a mountain hut is restful in itself.