Amalfi or Trieste?

Both cities give you good swimming in clear, warm sea without a proper sandy beach, so it comes down to setting. Amalfi has Marina Grande, a pebble strip under the Duomo that is lined with paid loungers in summer. The best swimming is in coves like Santa Croce and Duoglio, reached by stairs or shuttle boat, or from a hired boat.

Trieste swims in a more local way: towels on the concrete platforms and pine lawns at Barcola, ladders into the Adriatic, and old bathing establishments with changing cabins. The prettier pebble coves are at Sistiana and Duino, and Piran's shore is close by. It feels less like a resort and more like everyday city life.

Trieste is the better place to eat. Its table mixes Italy, Austria and the Slavic world: carved pork at the buffet counters, jota, sardoni and strudel, a coffee culture with its own vocabulary, and osmize farmhouses on the Karst pouring Vitovska and Terrano.

Amalfi has fine raw materials, with sfusato lemons, anchovies, colatura and scialatielli with seafood. But the town is small, and the cooking around the piazza is often aimed at day visitors, so the good trattorias take some seeking out. Neither city has much fine dining.

Trieste has far more to see. You get the sea-facing Piazza Unità, the Borgo Teresiano grid along the Canal Grande, the cathedral and castle on San Giusto, a Roman theatre, Miramare Castle, a major synagogue and the Risiera di San Sabba memorial, with the shadow of Joyce and Svevo over it all.

Amalfi's heritage is a single, striking chapter from its days as a maritime republic: the Arab-Norman Duomo, the Chiostro del Paradiso, the Arsenale and the paper museum. It is beautiful, but most visitors have seen it all within half a day.

Neither city has much nightlife, but Trieste at least has some evening life. Aperitivo crowds gather around Piazza Unità and in Cavana, students keep a few wine bars and pubs going, and in summer the kiosks at Barcola stay open late.

Amalfi empties once the last ferries and buses leave. After dinner there is gelato or a drink on Piazza Duomo, and in summer a handful of bars stay open later. For anything more you would have to go to Salerno or Naples.

Amalfi has the more spectacular landscape. The Lattari mountains drop into the sea in lemon terraces and ravines, and you get the waterfalls of the Valle delle Ferriere, the Path of the Gods above Positano, and sea caves such as the Emerald Grotto to explore by kayak.

Trieste's outdoors is close at hand rather than dramatic. You can walk the Strada Napoleonica above the gulf or the Rilke Path at Duino, climb in Val Rosandra, visit the Grotta Gigante and Škocjan caves, or snorkel in the Miramare marine reserve. It is also the stronger choice for sailing, and the Julian Alps are within reach.

Both make excellent bases, and Amalfi has the edge for famous names close by. Ravello's villas are just up the hill and Positano is a short ferry ride away. Capri, Paestum, Pompeii and Herculaneum all fit into a day, though the ferries are seasonal and the summer road is slow.

Trieste's day trips are more varied and cross borders. In Friuli there are Aquileia's mosaics, Cividale, star-shaped Palmanova and the Collio vineyards. In Slovenia there are Piran, Ljubljana and the Postojna cave, Croatian Istria is possible by car, and Venice is about two hours away by train.

Trieste is much easier with children. Its centre is flat and calm, and Miramare's gardens, the Grotta Gigante, a small aquarium and a science centre fill a few days. The steep back streets and swimming off rocks are drawbacks, but manageable ones.

Amalfi is a struggle with young children. Pushchairs can't cope with the stairways, the pebble beach is crowded and the winding buses can make children carsick. Confident older swimmers will enjoy the boats and sea caves, but toddlers are better off elsewhere.

Stairways shape every walk in Amalfi. The town is small enough to cross on foot, but away from the seafront it climbs through covered alleys and steps, which is hard going for anyone with limited mobility. It is the hub of its coast, with blue buses to Ravello, Positano and Salerno and ferries from spring to autumn. In summer, though, full buses pass by waiting queues, the single cliff road crawls and parking is hard to find.

Flat ground by the water makes Trieste the simpler place to move around. Piazza Unità, the Canal Grande and the museums sit close together, and the only real climb is up to San Giusto. A dense bus network runs out to Barcola, Miramare and up onto the Karst, and boats cross the bay to Muggia, all without Amalfi's summer bottlenecks.

Neither city is somewhere you go to shop, but the souvenirs differ. Amalfi's main street sells limoncello, majolica ceramics, made-to-measure sandals and the town's handmade cotton paper, much of it repeated from shop to shop. Trieste is better for rummaging through antique and second-hand shops in the old town and taking home edible things: roasted coffee, Karst wine and honey, and presnitz.

Trieste costs far less. Buffet meals, coffee at the bar and buses are cheap, rooms are reasonable for most of the year, and the waterfront, the cathedral hill and the Karst walks are free.

Amalfi ranks among Italy's dearest places to stay. Sea-view rooms are priced like a top European capital, and loungers, boats and meals on the piazza add up quickly. Staying in the hill villages or going in spring or autumn helps, but the local buses are the only real bargain.

Trieste offers the more regular programme. The waterfront Teatro Verdi runs a full season of opera and ballet, the city has a rare Italian fondness for operetta, there are theatres at the Rossetti and in Slovenian, and summer brings concerts in the San Giusto castle courtyard.

Amalfi itself has no theatre and little beyond church music and the band processions for Sant'Andrea. Its one standout is the summer Ravello Festival, held on the terrace of Villa Rufolo high above the sea. It is unforgettable, but only for part of the year.

Neither city has thermal baths, so relaxing in both comes down to pace. Trieste is a little more restful overall: an unhurried city of long coffee-house sittings and sunset walks on the Molo Audace, quiet in every season.

Amalfi's calm depends more on timing. There are long shaded lunches, swims off the rocks and early mornings, and the cliff hotels have spas, mostly for their own guests. The centre gets noisy in July and August, so the quiet moves to the hamlets and to May and October.