Assisi or Lecce?

This is the widest gap between the two. Assisi sits in the middle of Italy, far from either coast, and its only real swimming is the shallow, slightly cloudy water of Lake Trasimeno, about 45 minutes away, or a pool at a country hotel.

Lecce is the base for some of Italy's best southern beaches. Pale coves and sea stacks at Torre dell'Orso lie about half an hour south, and long, clear, shallow sands at Porto Cesareo and Punta Prosciutto are on the Ionian side. You will need a car or the summer buses, but a beach morning fits easily into a day.

Both cities cook their own region and little else, but Lecce gives more to the curious eater. Assisi's strengths are its ingredients: black truffle on strangozzi, Castelluccio lentils, Subasio olive oil and Sagrantino from Montefalco. Near the basilicas, though, set menus for tour groups are common, and the best meals are often found in side-lane trattorias or down in the valley.

Lecce has a food rhythm that runs through the whole day, from a warm pasticciotto and caffè in ghiaccio at breakfast to a mid-morning rustico and ciceri e tria at dinner. Simple osterie in the old town serve it well and cheaply, with Negroamaro and Primitivo on the table.

These two are equally rewarding but very different. Assisi is about one supreme interior: the stacked basilica of Saint Francis, with Cimabue and Simone Martini below and the Giotto fresco cycle above. Around it are Santa Chiara, the Temple of Minerva and the Porziuncola, all bound up with the story of a single saint.

Lecce's art is on the outside. Its honey-coloured limestone facades, carved with fruit, beasts and cherubs, culminate at Santa Croce and the Piazza del Duomo, with a Roman amphitheatre half uncovered below the main square. Its museums are modest, and the pleasure is in walking the streets rather than standing before a single masterpiece.

Assisi barely has a night out. After dinner, there is a glass of Sagrantino and a walk through floodlit, empty lanes, and anyone wanting more goes to Perugia.

Lecce is far more sociable. The passeggiata leads into aperitivi on the piazzas and then to wine and cocktail bars in the old-town lanes, and students keep weekends going late. For dancing, you drive to the summer beach clubs near Gallipoli.

Assisi is better for walkers. Monte Subasio starts at the town walls, and the path climbs through holm oaks to the Eremo delle Carceri and on to open meadows at about 1,290m. Wilder country waits in the Valnerina, Monte Cucco and the Sibillini.

Lecce's surroundings are a flat plain of olive groves, so its outdoors is the coast. There are cliffs and sea caves from Roca Vecchia to Santa Maria di Leuca, birdwatching at Le Cesine and the Alimini lakes, and good snorkelling and diving.

Assisi has the denser and easier range of excursions. Spello is ten minutes away, and Perugia and Spoleto are reachable by regional train. Gubbio, Todi, Orvieto, Deruta and the Montefalco wine villages are all within a comfortable drive, and the Tuscan hill towns of Cortona and Montepulciano are not far beyond.

Lecce has fine destinations too, including Otranto's mosaic floor, Gallipoli's island old town and the frescoes of Galatina. Places further afield, such as Ostuni and the trulli of Alberobello, involve longer drives, and nearly everything is easier with a car.

Lecce is the easier place to bring children. Its old town is flat and largely free of cars, families fill the piazzas in the evening, and the shallow sand around Porto Cesareo suits toddlers.

Assisi is safe and welcoming, but its sights call for silence and its lanes are steep and stepped, which is hard going with a pushchair. Older children enjoy the Rocca Maggiore and the hill walk. Families usually stay at a valley agriturismo with a pool and visit the town in short bursts.

Assisi works better once you leave the centre. Its old town is compact but steep, and the station is 4km below, reached by bus or taxi. From there, though, regional trains run along the valley to Perugia, Spello, Foligno and Spoleto, so a good share of Umbria can be seen without driving.

Lecce's centre is gentler on the legs, being flat and partly pedestrianised, with the station at its edge. Beyond the city, however, the Salento railways are slow and infrequent and the beach buses run only in summer, so most visitors end up hiring a car.

Neither city is a shopping destination, but Lecce offers a little more. Its cartapesta saints and nativity figures are made in old-town workshops, alongside carved limestone, Grottaglie ceramics and a few fashion shops on the main streets.

In Assisi, devotional souvenirs crowd the streets. Look past them for Assisi-embroidered linens, Deruta pottery, truffle products and Sagrantino.

Both are fair value for Italy, but the expensive moments come at different times. In Assisi, the basilicas are free, and convent guesthouses and valley agriturismi keep costs down. Rooms inside the walls are dearer around Easter and the big feasts.

Lecce is cheap to eat in, from street pastries to trattorias, and B&Bs in old palazzi are reasonable for most of the year. In August, though, the Salento fills up, and a hire car adds to the cost of beach days.

Lecce has more going on, and more that is its own. The Politeama Greco and the Teatro Paisiello stage opera, concerts and theatre. All summer, village festivals ring with pizzica tambourine music, building up to the Notte della Taranta in Melpignano in August.

Assisi's music is mostly sacred: organ and choral concerts in the basilicas, plus the costumed Calendimaggio in spring. For jazz or opera, you have to go to Perugia.

The two are close here, but the kind of rest differs. Assisi offers silence: convent retreats, early mornings before the groups arrive and quiet walks to the hermitage. Its spas are few and found in country hotels.

Lecce offers real waters. The sulphur pools of Santa Cesarea Terme sit in sea-cliff grottoes under an hour away, several masserie have spas, and the long afternoon rest slows the whole city down.