Bari or Portofino?

These two are broadly level for swimming, but the experience is quite different. Bari has an actual sandy beach in town at Pane e Pomodoro, busy with local families. Its better water is half an hour south, in Polignano's cliff-walled pebble cove and the rocky inlets around Monopoli.

Portofino has no beach of its own. You swim off rock ladders into deep, very clear water towards the lighthouse, or squeeze into small Paraggi, which is mostly given over to paid beach clubs. Going by boat to San Fruttuoso's pebbles is part of the fun, but every spot is small and fills up fast.

Bari is one of the strongest reasons to visit Puglia for food, and Portofino is not a food destination. In Bari Vecchia you eat orecchiette rolled on doorsteps, fried sgagliozze from kitchen windows, sea urchins at the fishermen's pier and tiella with Primitivo, all generous and fairly priced.

Portofino offers Ligurian classics such as trofie al pesto and Recco's cheese focaccia, but mainly at harbour terraces where you pay for the yachts in front of you. Keen eaters there head to Camogli or hill trattorie, while in Bari the best food is right in the old town.

Bari gives sightseers considerably more. The Basilica di San Nicola is a major Romanesque church and a pilgrimage site, and the cathedral, the Norman-Swabian castle, the Murat quarter's palazzi and the Pinacoteca make up a day or two of real visits.

Portofino's culture is mostly the village scene itself. You get the coloured houses around the piazzetta, San Giorgio, the small Castello Brown and the abbey at San Fruttuoso, which you reach by boat or on foot. It is lovely to look at but has no museums to fill a rainy afternoon.

Bari has a proper night out and Portofino largely does not. On summer nights students and young locals fill Piazza Ferrarese and the old town's steps, the Umbertino bars stay open past midnight, and in high summer the crowd moves to beach clubs on the coast.

Portofino's evening is a dressed-up aperitivo and dinner facing the yachts, and then the village goes quiet. Anyone wanting clubs or late bars has to travel to Santa Margherita, Rapallo or Genoa.

Portofino is far stronger for the outdoors. Its headland is a regional park, with trails through holm oak and pine to the Semaforo Nuovo viewpoint and down cliff paths with chains towards Punta Chiappa. Offshore, the marine reserve has red coral walls and the Christ of the Abyss statue for divers.

Bari's own landscape is a flat plain of olive groves, with the seafront promenade as its main open space. The Alta Murgia plateau and the Castellana caves are about an hour away, and they suit gentle walks and cycling rather than anything dramatic.

Both are good bases, but Bari's range is deeper. Matera's cave city, the trulli of Alberobello, Ostuni's white lanes, Castel del Monte, Trani's seafront cathedral and Baroque Lecce give you a different kind of place each day. A hire car helps for the inland towns.

Portofino's outings are mostly along one coastline: Camogli, Santa Margherita, Sestri Levante and the Cinque Terre, reached by summer ferries that make the journey part of the pleasure. Genoa adds a large historic city less than an hour away.

Bari works better with children. It has a sandy beach in town, traffic-free old lanes, gelato on the evening passeggiata, and outings to the Castellana caves or the Fasano safari park.

Portofino is calm and safe, and children like the boats and the castle walk. But steep steps defeat pushchairs, the sand at Paraggi is mostly paid beach clubs, and families usually stay in Rapallo or Santa Margherita instead.

Bari is easier to move around. The old town, the Murat grid and the promenade sit side by side on flat ground, a train runs to the airport, and regional railways fan out along the coast and inland, even if some are slow.

Portofino itself takes minutes to cross, but reaching it means one narrow coastal road from Santa Margherita, with scarce parking and crowded summer buses. Ferries are the more pleasant way in, though they run only from spring to autumn.

Bari offers more actual shopping, though neither is a shopping destination. Via Sparano and the Murat streets have Italian chains and some boutiques, and the delicatessens sell orecchiette, taralli, olive oil and Puglian ceramics to take home.

Portofino packs a surprising number of big-name fashion and jewellery boutiques into a few lanes behind the harbour. You can see the lot within an hour, and for markets or a longer browse people go to Chiavari's arcades or Genoa.

This is the widest gap between the two. Bari is one of Italy's more affordable cities, with cheap street food and wine, a free old town, and room rates that only tighten in high summer.

Portofino's few hotels are luxury properties, and every terrace, lounger and boat hire is priced for yacht owners. Many visitors stay in Camogli or Rapallo and come over by day, which Bari never makes necessary.

Bari has a genuine evening of culture to offer. The Teatro Petruzzelli, one of Italy's largest opera houses, stages opera, ballet and symphonic seasons, and summer brings jazz and open-air concerts to the piazzas and the castle.

Portofino has no theatre or regular venue, only the odd summer concert in the piazzetta. For a night at the opera you would need to go to Genoa's Carlo Felice.

Neither has public spas or a bathing tradition, but Portofino is the more restful place to unwind. Its hillside luxury hotels have proper spas and pools, and the shaded headland paths are quiet early and late, though the midday tour-boat crowds in summer break the calm.

Bari's relaxation is mostly its slow southern rhythm, with long lunches and the seafront stroll at dusk. Real pampering means leaving the city for a country estate inland.