Amalfi or Palermo?

Amalfi's swimming is from pebbles. Marina Grande is lined with beach-club loungers, and the better water is in coves such as Santa Croce and Duoglio, or off a hired boat. It is a place to dip in between other plans.

Palermo also has to travel to the sea, but Mondello's shallow, sandy bay half an hour away by bus makes a proper beach day. The flat rocks around Capo Gallo and Sferracavallo add deep-water swimming. With sand and gently shelving water as well, Palermo has the edge.

Amalfi's cooking is narrow but rooted in the coast: sfusato lemons, colatura from Cetara, scialatielli with clams and wines from Furore. The trouble is that the places on the piazza and seafront cook for passing crowds, so a good meal takes some seeking out in the alleys.

Palermo is a far better city to eat in. Ballarò, the Capo and the Vucciria fry panelle and arancine all day, while Arab-tinged dishes such as pasta con le sarde and caponata fill the trattorie. Cannoli and brioche with granita make sweets a pursuit of their own, and you eat well here almost by accident.

Amalfi's heritage fits into a morning: the striped Duomo with its doors from Constantinople, the Chiostro del Paradiso, the old Arsenale and the paper museum up the valley.

Palermo can fill a week. The Palatine Chapel, La Martorana and the cathedral form a UNESCO-listed Arab-Norman route, followed by baroque churches and oratories with Serpotta's stucco. The Salinas and Palazzo Abatellis are serious museums, so anyone who travels for sights will find much more in Palermo.

In Amalfi a night out means dinner, then a gelato on Piazza Duomo, and the town goes quiet once the day visitors leave. Palermo keeps going past midnight: the Vucciria becomes an open-air bar and the wine bars around the Kalsa fill up after a late dinner. Neither is a city for clubbing, but only Palermo offers a proper night out.

Amalfi wins for landscape you can walk into from your door. The gorge of the Valle delle Ferriere starts behind the town, the Path of the Gods runs high above Positano, and kayaks reach sea caves such as the Emerald Grotto.

Palermo's outdoors is wider but further away. Monte Pellegrino and Capo Gallo are close by, but the Zingaro coast path and the Madonie peaks of nearly 2,000m really need a car.

Both make superb bases, but the trips differ in kind. From Amalfi they are short hops along one famous coast: Ravello up the hill, Positano and Capri by ferry, with Pompeii or Paestum making a full day out. Most of the ferries run only from spring to autumn.

Palermo's range is wider and older. Monreale's mosaics are half an hour away and Cefalù is an hour by train, while Segesta, Erice and Agrigento's Valley of the Temples lie further out. The ancient sites are much easier with a hire car.

Neither is easy with small children, but Palermo is the easier of the two. Mondello's shallow, sandy bay suits toddlers, the puppet shows of knights and Saracens entertain older children, and restaurants welcome families late into the evening.

Amalfi's stairways defeat pushchairs, its beach is crowded pebbles and the winding cliff buses can make children carsick. It works mainly for older children who swim confidently and enjoy boat trips.

You can walk around both centres, but they feel very different on foot. Amalfi is tiny but steep, all stairs and covered alleys, and its buses and seasonal ferries along the coast get badly crowded in summer.

Palermo's centre is flat along Via Maqueda and Corso Vittorio Emanuele, though the side lanes often have no pavements. Its slow city buses make a hire car tempting for the rest of the island. In neither place is driving in town a pleasure.

Amalfi's one shopping street sells the same limoncello and ceramics from shop to shop, and its real find is handmade cotton paper from the valley. Palermo has more range: Italian fashion on Via Libertà, moor's-head vases, marionettes from the puppet workshops, coral jewellery and pistachio pesto from the markets. Neither is a shopping destination, but Palermo gives you more to browse.

Amalfi is among the most expensive places to stay in Italy. Sea-view rooms, beach loungers and boat hire are all priced at the luxury end, and only the local buses are a bargain.

Palermo costs much less from day to day. Street food in the markets makes a cheap meal, and trattorie and guesthouses are fairly priced. July and August at Mondello are the main exception.

Amalfi has no theatre of its own, so its musical high point is a summer evening at the Ravello Festival, on the Villa Rufolo terrace above the sea. Palermo has a full season of opera, ballet and concerts at the Teatro Massimo and the symphony orchestra at the Politeama. It also has the Opera dei Pupi, where armoured marionettes fight out the Charlemagne legends in small family theatres.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and both leave spa treatments to the hotels. Amalfi's calm comes from the pace of a small coast town, with shaded lunches and morning swims from the rocks, although July and August crowd it. Palermo is noisier, so rest means the Orto Botanico, a cloister, or the train to the thermal waters at Termini Imerese.