Bari or La Spezia?

The swimming is about equally good, but it works differently. Bari has a sandy beach of its own at Pane e Pomodoro, a short walk from the centre and crowded with local families, plus rocky platforms near Torre Quetta. The best water is south of the city, at Polignano's cliff-backed cove and the inlets around Monopoli.

La Spezia has no beach in town at all, so every swim starts with a bus, boat or train. In return, the choice is wide: sheltered sand and pebble at Lerici and San Terenzo, very clear rocky water off Palmaria, and Monterosso's long sandy beach. Expect more pebbles and more paid bathing establishments than around Bari.

Bari is the better place to eat. Its street food is particular to the city: focaccia barese, panzerotti and fried sgagliozze, with raw shellfish eaten standing at the fishermen's pier. Hand-rolled orecchiette, tiella and burrata make even simple meals worth the trip, and the food comes with Primitivo and Negroamaro.

La Spezia's Ligurian cooking is good but narrower: farinata, mesciua, pesto on trofie and the gulf's rope-grown mussels, with crisp Cinque Terre whites to drink. Neither city has much fine dining or international food.

Bari has the stronger set of sights, nearly all inside Bari Vecchia. The Basilica di San Nicola, the cathedral and the Norman-Swabian castle sit a few minutes apart among whitewashed lanes, and the Murat grid and the Pinacoteca make a second day.

La Spezia is a nineteenth-century naval town with no medieval centre. Its draws are museums: the Amedeo Lia collection of early Italian painting, the naval museum and the Lunigiana stele statues in the castle. Most of the area's real history lies out along the coast.

Bari is the place for a night out. Students and young locals fill Piazza Mercantile and Piazza Ferrarese well past midnight, and in July and August the crowd moves on to open-air venues and beach clubs down the coast.

La Spezia's evening is mostly the aperitivo, a spritz or Vermentino along Via del Prione or at the Lerici waterfront in summer, after which the town goes quiet. Most visitors here turn in early for the next day's trails.

This is La Spezia's great advantage. Terraced cliffs of vines and olives fall to the sea along the Cinque Terre, linked by the coastal Sentiero Azzurro and quieter ridge paths, and Palmaria and the Montemarcello promontory are close to town. Add kayaking, diving and the marble peaks of the Apuan Alps an hour inland, and an active trip can fill a week.

Bari's surroundings are flat olive country. The Alta Murgia plateau suits quiet walks and cycling, and the Grotte di Castellana are worth an outing, but there are no mountains and nothing as dramatic as the Ligurian cliffs.

Both cities make excellent bases, but the trips are of different kinds. From Bari they spread across a whole region: Matera's cave dwellings, the trulli of Alberobello, Ostuni and the Valle d'Itria, Castel del Monte and Baroque Lecce. Each place looks quite different from the last, though distances are longer and some need a car.

La Spezia's best trips are packed tightly together. The five Cinque Terre villages and Portovenere are minutes away, and Pisa, Lucca and the Riviera towns towards Portofino are easy rail outings, so a different place each day requires very little planning.

The two are about even for children, and neither has a zoo or theme park on its doorstep. Bari's advantage is a sandy beach in town, car-free old-town lanes and the evening passeggiata, with the Fasano safari park and the Castellana caves for days out. Midday heat means planning around a long afternoon break.

La Spezia's best family days are on the water, with boat trips round Portovenere and shallow beaches at Lerici. Its steep villages and crowded summer trains suit older children better than toddlers.

La Spezia is the easier place to manage without a car. Its station, market, museums and seafront are within a short flat walk, coastal trains run through the Cinque Terre, buses reach Portovenere and Lerici, and ferries cross the gulf in season. Driving into the villages is more trouble than it is worth, and the main drawback is packed summer trains.

Bari's centre is just as walkable and has a rail link to the airport. Its regional lines are slow and infrequent, though, so many visitors hire a car for the inland towns.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Bari offers a little more. Via Sparano and the Murat streets combine Italian chains with a few upmarket boutiques, and Puglian ceramics make a good find. La Spezia's Via del Prione and Corso Cavour are more everyday. In both, the best things to take home are edible: taralli and dried orecchiette from Bari, pesto, Sciacchetrà and anchovies from La Spezia.

Bari goes further on a modest budget. Street food, trattoria lunches and local wine cost little, and the old town and basilica are free, though rooms tighten in July and August.

La Spezia is mid-priced. It is cheaper to stay in than the Cinque Terre villages, but summer rooms cost what they do elsewhere in Western Europe, and trail passes, boat trips and bathing establishments add up over a stay. Spring and autumn ease the cost.

Bari has a real stage for an evening out. The Teatro Petruzzelli, one of Italy's largest opera houses, runs seasons of opera, ballet and symphonic music, and the Piccinni adds drama.

La Spezia's Teatro Civico offers prose theatre and touring shows, and for opera you have to travel to Genoa or Pisa. Both cities have a long-running summer jazz festival and open-air concerts, so the gap narrows in July and August.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and spa time mostly means a hotel. The ways to unwind differ. From Bari, people book a few nights at a restored masseria in the countryside, while from La Spezia the small thermal baths at Equi Terme are an hour inland, and the quiet of Palmaria or a long lunch in Tellaro are much closer.