Bari or Lucca?

Bari has the sea on its doorstep. Pane e Pomodoro is a sandy city beach within walking distance of the centre, and the coves of Polignano a Mare and Monopoli are a short train ride south, with clear water between limestone rocks. Lucca has no shore of its own, so every swim starts with the train to Viareggio.

What Lucca reaches is a different kind of coast. The Versilia beaches are long and gently shelving, mostly laid out with beach-club umbrellas, and the pine-backed dunes of the Lecciona are wilder. If you want clear coves, rocky inlets and the option of a quick swim after sightseeing, Bari is the stronger choice.

Food is one of the best reasons to choose Bari. Orecchiette is rolled by hand in the old town's lanes. Add focaccia barese, panzerotti and raw sea urchins by the fishermen's pier, and you have a street food culture Lucca simply lacks. The Primitivo and Negroamaro wines that go with it are cheap and generous.

Lucca's cooking is honest but narrower. Its family trattorias inside the walls serve spelt soup, tordelli, cecina and buccellato. The food is reliable, but the menus start to repeat after a few days, and the seafood at the heart of eating in Bari barely appears.

Bari's sights are concentrated in Bari Vecchia, around the Basilica di San Nicola, an outstanding Romanesque church that holds the relics of St Nicholas. The cathedral, the castle and the palazzi of the Murat quarter are close by. It all has character, but it is quickly seen.

Lucca gives you more to look at. Its Renaissance walls are complete, San Michele in Foro and San Frediano have richly carved façades, the cathedral holds Ilaria del Carretto's tomb, and the oval Piazza dell'Anfiteatro follows the line of the Roman amphitheatre. Neither city has a museum of great weight, so the difference lies in the streets and churches, and Lucca has more of them.

Bari is the place for a night out. On summer evenings Piazza Mercantile and Piazza Ferrarese fill with students and young locals, and the bars of the Umbertino streets stay open past midnight. In July and August the coast south of the city adds beach clubs and open-air venues.

In Lucca, an evening means an aperitivo in Piazza San Michele, a long dinner and a walk on the walls, and the centre is mostly quiet by midnight. If you want to dance, you go to the Versilia coast and take a late taxi back.

The country around Bari is flat, all olive groves and stone walls, and the long seafront promenade is the main outdoor space in the city. The open karst plateau of the Alta Murgia is about an hour inland, good for quiet walks and cycling, and the Grotte di Castellana are within reach underground.

Lucca has far more variety close by. The Apuan Alps rise steeply about an hour to the north, with marble quarries and real mountain hiking. The Garfagnana has chestnut and beech forest, and Lake Massaciuccoli is good for birdwatching. Even in town, the tree-lined walls make a ring for running and cycling.

Both cities are first-rate bases for day trips, and the choice comes down to what you want to see. From Bari you head for the cave city of Matera, the trulli of Alberobello, the white towns of the Valle d'Itria, Castel del Monte and Baroque Lecce. It is a rural, southern circuit where a car helps.

Lucca's day trips are classic Tuscany. Pisa is about half an hour away by train and Florence a little over an hour. The countryside villas and the marble town of Pietrasanta are close, and with an early start you can reach the Cinque Terre. More of this is easy without a car.

Both cities are relaxed and welcoming with children, and neither has much built for them. Bari has a sandy beach in town and traffic-free lanes in the old town. The Grotte di Castellana and the Fasano safari park make good outings, though summer middays call for a long break indoors.

Lucca swaps the beach for bikes. Families ride a quadricycle around the walls, children climb the Torre Guinigi to the oak trees on top, and Pinocchio Park at Collodi is close by. In autumn, Lucca Comics & Games is a treat for older children.

Bari's centre is easy to walk. Bari Vecchia, the Murat streets and the seafront lie side by side on flat ground, and a rail link runs to the airport. The city buses are slow, though, and some regional lines run infrequently.

Lucca is easier still. It is compact, flat, largely closed to traffic and made for cycling, with bike rental at every gate. Regular trains to Pisa and Florence leave from just outside the walls. In both places, the inland countryside is simpler with a hire car.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and in both the best buys are things to eat. Bari's Via Sparano has Italian chains and a few boutiques, and dried orecchiette, taralli and Puglian ceramics are worth taking home.

Lucca's Via Fillungo has more charm, with some old Liberty-style shopfronts still in place. Its monthly antiques market around the cathedral is a real draw that Bari cannot match.

Bari gives you noticeably more for your money. Street food and trattoria lunches cost little, local wine is cheap, and room rates only climb in July and August.

Lucca is cheaper than Florence but priced like the rest of central Italy. Accommodation is the sticking point: there are few hotels inside the walls, and they fill up in summer and at festival time. Staying outside the walls is often the better deal.

The two cities are close here, but the evenings they offer are different. Bari has the bigger stage: the Teatro Petruzzelli, one of Italy's largest opera houses, puts on seasons of opera, ballet and symphonic concerts. In summer a jazz festival plays in the piazzas and the castle.

Lucca has Puccini. Short recitals of his arias run for most of the year, and the Teatro del Giglio has a full season. Summer brings large outdoor concerts to Piazza Napoleone and open-air opera by the lake at Torre del Lago.

In Bari, relaxing mostly means slowing to the local pace: long lunches, the afternoon break and an evening walk along the seafront. For more pampering there are only hotel spas or the country estates outside town.

Lucca has the same slow pace in quieter, traffic-free streets, and real spa water within reach. The belle époque baths of Montecatini Terme are half an hour away by train, Monsummano has warm pools inside a cave, and Bagni di Lucca has natural steam grottoes. A spa day is easy from Lucca and hard to arrange from Bari.