Assisi or Positano?

Positano is a real beach destination and Assisi is not. From Assisi the nearest swim is at the small lido beaches of Lake Trasimeno, which are shallow and rather murky, or in the pool of a country hotel.

Positano has Spiaggia Grande and Fornillo below the town, Arienzo and Laurito reached by stairway or boat, and clear deep water that is warm enough from June to early October. The shore is coarse grey sand and pebble and shelves steeply, so water shoes help, and in high summer space runs out by mid-morning.

Both towns eat well within a narrow range, but from different larders. Assisi cooks like inland Umbria: strangozzi with black truffle, Castelluccio lentils, wild boar and torta al testo, with Monte Subasio olive oil and Sagrantino from Montefalco. The best of it is on the side lanes and at agriturismi, away from the tour-group menus.

Positano's table is the sea: clams, grilled fish, scialatielli and lemon desserts, eaten on terraces where the view is part of the meal. A few hotel dining rooms aim higher, but many kitchens close between November and Easter.

Assisi is far ahead here. The Basilica of San Francesco ranks among Europe's great monuments: two churches stacked on the hillside, with frescoes by Cimabue, Simone Martini and Lorenzetti and the cycle of Saint Francis traditionally given to Giotto. The Temple of Minerva, Santa Chiara and the Rocca Maggiore fill out a calm two days.

Positano's main sight is the town itself, its pastel houses stacked up the ravine, along with the majolica dome of Santa Maria Assunta and the painted Roman villa preserved beneath it. That takes a couple of hours, and for serious sightseeing you have to go to Naples or elsewhere on the coast.

Neither is a place for a night out, but Positano has a little more going on. In summer a few bars near the beach stay busy and a club in a cave at the end of Spiaggia Grande runs late, though it all fades once the season ends.

Assisi goes silent after the day-trippers leave. A glass of Sagrantino and a walk through the floodlit lanes is about as late as the evening gets, and anyone who wants bars should stay in Perugia, half an hour away.

Both towns have mountains behind them, but Positano's are the more spectacular. Assisi has Monte Subasio, with woodland paths to the Eremo delle Carceri and open summit meadows at about 1,290m, easy cycling between Spello and Montefalco, and the Sibillini within reach by car.

At Positano the Lattari mountains drop straight into the sea. The Path of the Gods runs along the cliffs to Nocelle, and kayaks and boats reach grottoes and the Li Galli islets. In both places, spring and autumn walking beats the midday heat of summer.

Both are excellent bases. The difference is in what lies around them and how you get there. From Assisi the outings are to hill towns: Spello, Perugia, Spoleto, Gubbio, Todi and Orvieto, with trains along the valley and a car for the rest.

From Positano you travel mostly by water, and the list includes some of Italy's best-known sites: Amalfi, Ravello, Capri, and Pompeii and Herculaneum via Sorrento. Most ferries run only from spring to autumn, so Assisi's train line is the more dependable choice in winter.

Neither is easy with small children, and for similar reasons: steep, stepped streets that defeat a pushchair, and very little made for children. The difference is what older children get out of it, which in Assisi means the Rocca Maggiore castle and a walk up Monte Subasio, and in Positano swimming in calm summer water and boat trips. In both places families do better staying somewhere flatter, at a valley agriturismo with a pool near Assisi or on a gentler stretch of the coast.

Assisi is the easier of the two, though neither is flat. Its centre takes twenty minutes to walk end to end, with slopes and stairs, and there are car parks and lifts at the edges. Regional trains from the station 4km below run to Perugia, Spello and Spoleto.

Positano is almost all steps, with one road, crowded coastal buses and scarce parking. Ferries are the best way along the coast, but mostly only in season, so visitors rely on boats and their own legs.

Positano makes shopping part of the visit. Its lanes are lined with boutiques selling white linen and printed moda Positano resort wear, and sandal makers will fit a pair while you wait. It is all one look, but a distinctive one.

Assisi's streets lean towards rosaries and Tau crosses, though Umbrian linen with Assisi embroidery, Deruta ceramics, olive oil and truffle products are worth taking home.

Assisi is much the easier on the wallet, and saving money there takes little effort. The extra cost of a famous town gathers in a small ring around the basilicas and along the main streets, so sleeping down in the valley or eating a few lanes away brings prices back to ordinary Umbrian levels. Its dearest times follow the religious calendar rather than the weather, so steering clear of Easter and the great feast days avoids the peaks.

In Positano, the high prices are hard to avoid while you are in town, because the view is built into the price of every room and every table. The real saving is to sleep elsewhere, in Praiano or Sorrento, and come in by bus or ferry. Here the season is what drives prices, so May and October cost noticeably less than high summer, though even then a day there costs well above a day in Assisi.

Neither has much, but Assisi offers a little more in town. Organ recitals and choral concerts are held in its basilicas around the feast days, the spring Calendimaggio festival brings costume, song and processions, and Perugia's opera and summer jazz are close by.

Positano has only occasional summer concerts. Its best evening out is Ravello's classical festival on a terrace above the sea, and for opera you go to Naples.

Both offer calm rather than a spa culture, but of very different kinds. Assisi's calm is contemplative: retreats in convent guesthouses, silent walks to the Eremo delle Carceri and evenings that go still once the tour groups leave.

Positano's comes from comfort: upscale hotels with spas and pools cut into the cliff, and long afternoons on a terrace above the sea. It is most restful in May, June and late September, because high summer is crowded and noisy.