Amalfi or Matera?

Amalfi has the sea on its doorstep. Marina Grande is a pebble strip under the Duomo, crowded with beach-club loungers in summer, but Atrani's beach, the coves at Santa Croce and Duoglio and a day on a hired boat give you clear water and rocks to swim from whenever you like.

Matera is inland, so swimming takes a deliberate day out by car to Metaponto or Policoro. What waits there is the opposite of Amalfi: long, wide sand backed by pine woods and shallow water that small children can paddle in. It is a better beach in itself, but too far away to be part of daily life.

The two eat about equally well, but from different larders. Amalfi cooks from the sea and its terraces: anchovies, Cetara's colatura, scialatielli with clams, and lemons in everything from cakes to limoncello. Matera serves the inland peasant food of Basilicata, with its horn-shaped bread, bean and pulse soups, cavatelli, roast lamb and crackling peperoni cruschi, washed down with a strong Aglianico.

In both towns the obvious tables cost more than they are worth, Amalfi's on the piazza and seafront, Matera's in the Sassi cave rooms. The better meals are up the alleys in Amalfi and in the upper town in Matera.

Matera has far more to see. The two Sassi districts, lived in since prehistoric times, climb the gorge in layers of cave houses and carved churches with Byzantine frescoes. Add the walk-through cistern under the main piazza, Carlo Levi's panorama at Palazzo Lanfranchi and sculpture displayed in rock rooms, and the sights fill a couple of days.

Amalfi's heritage comes from its days as a maritime republic: the striped Duomo with its Constantinople bronze doors, the Chiostro del Paradiso, the old Arsenale and the paper mill museum. It is handsome, but you will have seen it in a morning before heading back to the water.

Neither town is for a night out, but Matera has a little more going on after dark. Its evening passeggiata along Via del Corso, a few late cave bars and a small student crowd keep the upper town lively in summer.

Amalfi empties once the last buses and ferries take the day visitors away, and an evening means dinner and a drink or gelato on Piazza Duomo. For anything more you would have to go to Salerno or Naples.

Amalfi's setting is the stronger draw for anyone who walks. The Sentiero degli Dei above Positano is one of Europe's great coastal paths, the Valle delle Ferriere starts behind town with its waterfalls and ferns, and old mule stairways climb to Pontone and Ravello. On the water there are kayaks and sea caves such as the Emerald Grotto.

Matera's outdoors is drier and starker. You can cross the Gravina gorge to the Murgia plateau, past abandoned rock churches and Neolithic sites, with kestrels on the cliffs. For mountains you need a car to reach the Lucanian Dolomites or Pollino.

Both make excellent bases, but Amalfi puts more famous places within easy reach without a car. Ravello's villa gardens are a short bus ride up the hill, Positano and Capri are a ferry away, and Paestum, Pompeii and Herculaneum fit into a long day. The catch is the slow summer coast road and ferries that mostly run from spring to autumn.

From Matera, Puglia opens up: Altamura, Alberobello's trulli, Ostuni and the Valle d'Itria, Castel del Monte and Polignano a Mare are all within about an hour. Nearly every one of them needs a hire car.

Both towns are hard going with small children, and for the same reason: steep stone stairways where a pushchair is useless, and nothing built with children in mind. Amalfi adds packed, winding buses on the cliff road that can make children carsick, and its beach is a crowded strip of pebbles. Older children who swim confidently get the best of it, with boat trips, sea caves and walks up the valley.

Matera's summer afternoons are hot, with little shade in the Sassi, and the sea is a drive away rather than at the foot of the town. In return, older children enjoy the cave houses, the underground cistern and scrambling down into the gorge. With a car and a baby carrier, a short stay works, and the sandy Ionian shore makes an easier day for toddlers than anything on Amalfi's front.

Both are towns you walk, and both punish the legs with steps. The difference is in reaching anywhere else. Amalfi is the coast's transport hub, with blue buses and seasonal ferries from the harbour, although in summer the buses fill and the cliff road clogs, and a car is more trouble than it is worth.

Matera works the other way round. It lies off the national rail network, buses are sparse and the narrow-gauge line to Bari is slow, so a hire car is close to essential for exploring.

Amalfi has a little more worth buying. Its handmade cotton paper from the valley mills, painted majolica, linen and sandals made to measure stand out among the rows of limoncello and lemon soap on the main street.

Matera's offering is smaller: cuccù whistles, tufa carvings of the Sassi and ordinary high-street shops on Via del Corso. Its best souvenirs are edible, dried peppers, pasta and a bottle of Aglianico.

Matera is much the better deal. Its upper-town guesthouses and trattorias cost well below big-city levels, most sights are inexpensive, and walking the Sassi and the Murgia is free. Only the cave hotels in the Sassi and the peak summer weeks push prices up.

Amalfi is among the dearest places to stay in Italy, with short supply tilted towards luxury, and seafront meals, loungers and boat hire all add up. Sleeping in the hill villages and coming in spring or autumn help, and the local buses are a bargain, but it never feels cheap.

Neither has a theatre scene, so evenings out depend on summer. Amalfi's highlight is next door: the Ravello Festival's orchestral and chamber concerts on the Villa Rufolo terrace above the sea, plus processions and band music for Sant'Andrea.

Matera offers conservatory concerts, a summer jazz festival against the Sassi and the Festa della Bruna, when the papier-mâché float is torn apart at the end of the procession.

Amalfi's calm comes from the sea: swims from the rocks, long lunches on a shaded terrace and quiet mornings in the hill hamlets before the day visitors arrive. Its spas belong to the luxury hotels built into the cliffs and are mostly kept for their own guests. In July and August the centre turns crowded and noisy, so May and October are the restful months.\n\nMatera unwinds in stone instead. You get early walks through the Sassi before the tour groups, evenings watching the light fade over the gorge, and hotel spas set in candlelit cave rooms with pools cut into the rock. Neither town has a thermal bathing tradition, and Matera is at its most peaceful from autumn to spring.