Amalfi or Pisa?

Amalfi has a slight edge for swimming, but the two coasts are very different. Its sea is the clearer of the two, and the best of it lies in pebble coves like Santa Croce and Duoglio, at Atrani or among rocks reached by hired boat. Marina Grande in town is crowded and mostly taken up by beach clubs.

Pisa's sea is a bus ride away, but the beach is sand: long, wide stretches at Tirrenia and Calambrone backed by pine woods, with shallow water for paddling. The water near the Arno mouth is murkier, so come here for space and sand rather than clear snorkelling water.

Pisa eats better day to day, mainly because of the student trattorias and wine bars around the Piazza delle Vettovaglie market. They serve honest Tuscan food, from ribollita and game to hot cecina, at sensible prices.

Amalfi's cooking is more coastal and in some ways more distinctive: sfusato lemons, colatura, scialatielli with clams and limoncello after dinner. But the choice in so small a town is narrow, and the piazza tables feed day visitors. In both places, eat away from the main monument.

Pisa is far ahead here. The cathedral, baptistery, Leaning Tower and Camposanto make one of Italy's great ensembles, and beyond them are the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, Santa Maria della Spina and the palazzi along the Lungarni.

Amalfi's heritage is that of a medieval maritime republic: the Arab-Norman Duomo with its bronze doors, the Chiostro del Paradiso, the old Arsenale and the paper museum. It is all worth seeing, but it takes half a day, not two.

Neither place is a destination for a night out, but Pisa at least has evenings with some life in them. During term, students drink outside the small bars around the old market until late, aperitivo crowds fill Borgo Stretto, and the beach bars take over in summer.

Amalfi ends its day with dinner and a gelato on Piazza Duomo. Once the last ferries leave, the town goes quiet.

Amalfi's landscape is the stronger draw. The Lattari mountains fall straight into the sea, lemon terraces climb the slopes, and the Sentiero degli Dei counts among Europe's great coastal walks. The gorge of the Valle delle Ferriere starts right behind the town.

Pisa's outdoors is gentler and flatter. You can cycle or ride through the pine forest and dunes of San Rossore, watch birds at Lake Massaciuccoli and walk among the olive terraces of Monte Pisano. The serious hiking is a drive away in the Apuan Alps.

Both are excellent bases, but for different kinds of excursion. Amalfi's trips are short hops along one famous coast: Ravello up the hill, Positano by ferry, Capri in season, and Paestum or Pompeii with some planning. Ferries are seasonal and the cliff road is slow in summer, which limits it.

Pisa's day trips go further and in more directions, all by train: Florence, Lucca, the Cinque Terre and the Versilia coast. With a car you can add Volterra, San Gimignano and Siena. It works all year round.

Pisa is much easier with children. The centre is small and flat, the lawn by the tower is a place to run about, and the shallow sandy beaches and bike paths in San Rossore make good family days. Under-eights cannot climb the tower, though.

In Amalfi, the stairways rule out pushchairs, the pebble beach is crowded and the winding buses can make children carsick. Confident swimmers of school age will enjoy the boats and sea caves, but it is hard going with toddlers.

Pisa is the simpler place to get around. It is flat and compact, a shuttle train runs from the airport to the station, and its rail links cover western Tuscany. A car is only needed for the hill towns.

Amalfi is tiny and walkable, but almost every walk involves steps. Travelling beyond it depends on buses that fill up and pass by queues in summer, a single congested cliff road and ferries that do not run in winter.

Neither is a shopping destination, and the difference lies in what is on sale. Amalfi sells crafts: handmade cotton paper from the valley, hand-painted majolica, linen and made-to-measure sandals, alongside a lot of repeated lemon souvenirs. Pisa offers ordinary Italian high-street shopping on Corso Italia, smarter shops under the Borgo Stretto arcades and a monthly antiques market by the river.

There is a wide gap here. Pisa is a moderately priced city: rooms are mid-range, student trattorias give good value and you walk almost everywhere. The main costs are the tower climb and the loungers at the beach in summer.

Amalfi is one of Italy's dearest places to stay. Sea-view rooms, meals on the piazza and boat hire all cost a lot. Staying in a hill village or coming outside the summer helps, but it never becomes cheap.

Amalfi has no theatre of its own, and for most of the year there is little beyond church concerts and the processions and band music of the Sant'Andrea feast. The exception is summer up the hill, when the Ravello Festival holds orchestral and chamber concerts on the Villa Rufolo terrace above the sea, an evening worth planning a day around.

Pisa gives you more chances to see a performance. The horseshoe-shaped Teatro Verdi runs a regular season of opera, ballet, symphonic concerts and Italian-language drama from autumn to spring, and university chamber series add smaller evenings. For bigger productions, Florence is an hour away by train.

Pisa offers real thermal waters close by. San Giuliano Terme has springs used since Roman times and an 18th-century bath palace, and Casciana Terme has a large public pool. The quiet old town adds to the calm.

Amalfi relaxes you in a different way, with long shaded lunches and swims from the rocks. Its spas are mostly in cliffside hotels for their own guests, and the centre gets noisy in high summer.