Bari or Skopje?

This is the widest gap between the two. Within the city, Bari has the sand of Pane e Pomodoro and the rocky platforms around Torre Quetta. The clear coves of Polignano a Mare and Monopoli are a short train ride south, so summer swimming fits easily into a stay.

Skopje has no coast and no real bathing water nearby. In town there are hotel and public pools, and the cold reservoir at Matka suits kayaks better than swimmers. Lake Ohrid is three hours away and needs a stay of its own.

Both cities serve generous home cooking, but Bari eats better. Orecchiette rolled by hand in the lanes of Bari Vecchia, focaccia and sgagliozze sold from kitchen windows, and raw sea urchins at the fishermen's pier add up to a street food culture led by the sea, which Skopje cannot match.

Skopje cooks meat and peppers: tavche gravche, kebapi in the Old Bazaar, ajvar on everything and burek for breakfast. Its strengths are the Tikves wines, Vranec and Temjanika, and the long tavern evenings in Debar Maalo, but the repertoire is narrower and you will have tried it all within a few days.

The two are evenly matched in depth, and each takes about two days to see, but they feel very different. Bari's sights are Christian and medieval. The Romanesque Basilica di San Nicola, which draws pilgrims, stands with the cathedral and the Norman-Swabian castle in a whitewashed old town, and beyond it lies the orderly nineteenth-century grid of the Murat quarter.

Skopje sets an Ottoman bazaar of caravanserais, mosques and hamams against the statue-filled Skopje 2014 centre across the Stone Bridge. The stopped clock at the old railway station tells the story of the 1963 earthquake. Skopje is the more surprising city to look at, and some find it kitsch. Bari hangs together better.

Bari has the livelier evenings. On summer nights students fill the steps of Piazza Mercantile and Piazza Ferrarese, and the bars of the Umbertino streets and the seafront stay open past midnight. In July and August the beach clubs south of the city take over.

Going out in Skopje centres on cafe-bars, whose terraces in Debar Maalo move from coffee to rakija as the night goes on, and Old Bazaar courtyards stay busy in summer. It is sociable at weekends but thin on weeknights, and nothing matches Bari's summer beach clubs.

Skopje is much better for getting outdoors. Mount Vodno rises from the southern suburbs, with a cable car up to the Millennium Cross. Matka Canyon, with its limestone walls and cliff-top monasteries, is half an hour away, and the Sar mountains and Mavrovo add high ridge walks in summer and skiing in winter.

Bari's setting is flat olive country. Its outdoor options are the long seafront promenade, quiet walks and cycling on the Alta Murgia plateau, and the Grotte di Castellana. They are pleasant, but there are no mountains within easy reach.

Bari is by far the better base. Matera's cave city, the trulli of Alberobello, the white towns of the Valle d'Itria, Trani's cathedral by the sea and Baroque Lecce are all within a day's reach, many of them by regional train. Plenty of visitors choose Bari for its excursions alone.

Ohrid, Skopje's best-known destination, is too far for a day out. What remains is still varied: Roman mosaics at Stobi, the Tikves wineries, the crater town of Kratovo, and Prizren across the border in Kosovo. The list is shorter, though, and you will rely more on a car.

Neither city builds much for children, but Bari is easier with them. A sandy city beach, traffic-free lanes in the old town, a compact flat centre and outings to the Grotte di Castellana or the Fasano safari park will fill a week comfortably.

Skopje's cafes welcome children just as warmly, and the Vodno cable car and a boat ride into Matka Canyon make good days out. Busy roads, uneven pavements, a small zoo and no swimming beach make it harder going, especially in the summer heat.

Bari is the easier of the two to get around. Both cities have compact, flat centres where the main sights are a walk apart, but Bari adds what Skopje lacks: a train from the airport straight into town, and regional lines that take you to Polignano, Trani, Matera and Alberobello without a car. Those trains can be slow and sparse, so a hire car still pays off for the Valle d'Itria and Castel del Monte. Even so, a visitor without one is never stuck.

In Skopje the walking is pleasant along the Vardar, from the Old Bazaar across the Stone Bridge to Debar Maalo. Outside that strip you rely on taxis, which are cheap and easy to find, because there is no metro or tram and the red double-decker buses are confusing for visitors. Vodno and Matka are a short taxi ride away, but the mountains and wine country beyond really need a car.

Neither city is worth a trip for shopping alone. The difference is in what you buy. Bari has Italian fashion chains and a few upmarket boutiques along pedestrian Via Sparano, and its best souvenirs are edible: dried orecchiette, taralli and olive oil, along with Puglian ceramics.

Skopje is about the bazaar: silver filigree, copperware and embroidery from small workshops in the Old Bazaar, and produce and spices at Bit Pazar. Its malls are generic, so the crafts are the reason to browse.

Skopje is clearly the cheaper of the two. Tavern dinners with wine, burek and coffee, buses and taxis all cost very little, and central rooms stay reasonably priced through the summer.

Bari is good value by Italian standards, with cheap street food and free sights. But rooms tighten in July and August, and beach clubs and car hire for day trips push a summer budget up.

Bari has the grander stage. The Teatro Petruzzelli, one of Italy's largest opera houses, runs a season of opera, ballet and symphonic concerts worth dressing up for. In summer, open-air concerts and a jazz festival fill the piazzas and the castle.

Skopje's national opera, ballet and philharmonic work on a smaller scale, though tickets are affordable. Its distinctive draws are a long-established autumn jazz festival and the informal starogradska music in the taverns of Debar Maalo.

Neither city is built for pampering, and both find their calm in a slow daily rhythm rather than in spas. In Bari that means long lunches, an afternoon break and an evening walk along the seafront, and anyone wanting proper treatment heads to restored country estates outside the city.

Skopje's old hamams are art galleries rather than baths. Half an hour out, though, Katlanovska Banja has old-fashioned thermal mineral pools, which Bari lacks. Otherwise the city's calm comes from long hours on shaded cafe terraces in Debar Maalo.