Bari or Padua?

Bari has the sea on its doorstep. Pane e Pomodoro is a sandy city beach you can walk to, and the lidos and rocky platforms around Torre Quetta continue along the shore. The real draw is half an hour south by train, where the cove at Polignano a Mare and the inlets around Monopoli have clear water between limestone cliffs.

Padua has no beach of its own. Sottomarina and the Lido of Venice are about an hour away. The Adriatic there is just as warm and shallow, but the beaches are long, flat rows of umbrellas. They are fine for a paddle with children but not for a beach vacation.

Both cities cook in a home style, but Bari's food makes more of an impression on a visitor. Orecchiette is rolled by hand in the doorways of Bari Vecchia, and there is focaccia barese, fried sgagliozze and raw sea urchins at the fishermen's pier. With Primitivo or Negroamaro to drink, the food alone is a reason to come.

Padua's strengths are its markets and its drinking ritual. There are the stalls of Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta, bigoli with duck sauce and baccalà, and a spritz taken standing in the squares at dusk. It is good Venetian cooking, but it has less of the street-level character that makes Bari stand out.

Padua's sights carry far more weight. Giotto's frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel changed European painting, and the other fourteenth-century cycles around them make up a UNESCO-listed group. There is also Donatello's altar and his Gattamelata at the Basilica of Saint Anthony, the world's oldest permanent anatomical theatre at Palazzo Bo and the botanical garden founded in 1545. The centre is compact, but almost every stop in it matters to art or science.

Bari's sights are charming but lighter. Bari Vecchia has the Romanesque Basilica di San Nicola, the cathedral and the castle within a few lanes of each other, and beyond them lie the Murat grid and its seafront. It makes a pleasant day or two of looking around rather than a lesson in art history.

Bari is the livelier place to go out. Evenings start late on the steps of Piazza Mercantile and Piazza Ferrarese, and the bars in the Umbertino streets stay open past midnight. In July and August the crowd moves to beach clubs along the coast.

In Padua the night centres on the aperitivo in the squares by the Palazzo della Ragione and on student wine bars in the old ghetto. It is a sociable evening, but there are few clubs, and the city empties in summer, just when Bari's nights are at their liveliest.

Neither city has wild country on its doorstep, and both stand on flat land, so the difference is in what lies within reach. From Bari that means the open karst plateau of the Alta Murgia, the Grotte di Castellana and a coastline for walking and sailing.

Padua has the Euganean Hills about 15km away, with marked trails, vineyards and chestnut woods. The towpaths along the Brenta make for level cycling. For proper mountain walking, the pre-Alps around Monte Grappa are about an hour and a half away by car.

Both are excellent bases, and Padua comes out slightly ahead because of its trains. Venice is under half an hour away and Vicenza a quarter of an hour. Verona, Bologna and Ferrara take about an hour, all without a car, and the Brenta villas and the walled towns around the Euganean Hills are close as well.

Bari's list is just as tempting in its own way: the cave city of Matera, the trulli of Alberobello, the white towns of the Valle d'Itria, Castel del Monte and Lecce. The catch is that some regional lines are slow, so the inland trips are easier with a hire car.

Bari is the easier city with children, mostly because of the sea. There is a sandy city beach, gelato on the evening seafront stroll and the traffic-free lanes of the old town. For outings, the Grotte di Castellana and the Fasano safari park are within reach. In summer, plan the day around the midday heat.

Padua is flat, safe and largely pedestrianised, and children can run freely in Prato della Valle, but the main sights are frescoes and churches. To keep children entertained, families there usually travel an hour or more to Lake Garda or the Adriatic.

Padua is the simpler city to get around. Everything in the compact centre is within about twenty minutes on foot, and the arcades keep off sun and rain. A tram runs from the station, and with main railway lines in every direction most trips need no car.

Bari's centre is also flat and walkable, and a rail link runs to the airport. City buses are awkward for visitors, though, and the regional lines to Matera and the Valle d'Itria are slow and infrequent, so many visitors hire a car.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and in both the best things to buy are edible. Bari has the Italian chains of Via Sparano, along with orecchiette, taralli, olive oil and Puglian ceramics. Padua has fashion and shoe shops under its arcades, university bookshops, the delicatessens below the Palazzo della Ragione and a monthly antiques market on Prato della Valle.

Day to day, Bari is a little cheaper. Street food, trattoria lunches and local wine cost little, and the old town and the basilica are free to explore. Rooms get harder to find in July and August, though, and hiring a car for day trips adds up.

Padua has the prices of a typical northern Italian city: moderate rather than cheap, with paid entry to the Scrovegni Chapel and the main museums. Its saving comes from using it as a base. Sleeping here instead of in Venice and travelling in by train keeps the cost of a regional trip down.

Bari has the bigger stage. The Teatro Petruzzelli, one of Italy's largest opera houses, runs a full season of opera, ballet and symphonic concerts. In summer, jazz and open-air concerts move into the piazzas and the castle.

Padua's programme is smaller and more intimate. The Teatro Verdi stages plays and some opera, and chamber music is played in the frescoed Sala dei Giganti and the Basilica of Saint Anthony. For grand opera, visitors take the train to the Fenice in Venice or the Arena in Verona.

This is where Padua pulls far ahead. Abano Terme and Montegrotto Terme, about 12km away at the foot of the Euganean Hills, have hot mineral pools and mud treatments used since Roman times. Many spa hotels there take day visitors, so a soak after a morning of sightseeing is easy.

Bari has no bathing tradition, and its spas are hotel facilities. Rest there comes from long lunches and the evening walk along the seafront promenade, or from a stay at one of the restored country estates beyond the city.