Bari or Sorrento?

The two are broadly level for swimming, but the kind of swimming is quite different. Bari has a sandy town beach in Pane e Pomodoro, busy with local families, and a short train ride takes you to the cliff-framed cove at Polignano a Mare and the small rocky and sandy inlets around Monopoli.

Sorrento has almost no sand. You swim from lidos on wooden piers at Marina Piccola and Marina Grande, straight into deep, clear water, or from the rocks at the Bagni della Regina Giovanna. Space is tight in high summer and much of the shore is paid lidos, though boats to the coves of Capri make up for it.

Bari has the more rewarding food, mainly because so much of it happens in the street. You can watch orecchiette being rolled outside doorways, buy squares of sgagliozze from kitchen windows and eat sea urchins at the old pier, all at fair prices with Primitivo or Negroamaro to drink.

Sorrento cooks well too, with gnocchi alla sorrentina, fish all'acqua pazza and lemons in everything. The catch is the tourist menus around Piazza Tasso. The good meals are on the back lanes, at Marina Grande and in the hill villages, where some celebrated fine dining sits in a way Bari's small top tier cannot match.

Bari has much more to see inside the town itself. The Basilica di San Nicola, which holds the relics of St Nicholas and draws Orthodox pilgrims, is a landmark of Apulian Romanesque. The cathedral and the Norman-Swabian castle are close by, and the Murat quarter's palazzi and the Pinacoteca fill a second day.

Sorrento's own sights are slighter: the cloister of San Francesco, the Sedile Dominova, the Museo Correale's Neapolitan collections and the odd sunken ravine of the Vallone dei Mulini. Its cultural pull lies outside town, which is a matter for day trips.

Bari is far livelier after dark. Students and young locals fill the steps of Piazza Ferrarese late into the night, bars along the Umbertino streets run past midnight, and in summer the crowd moves to beach clubs on the coast.

Sorrento's evening is a passeggiata on Corso Italia and a drink over the bay, with piano bars and a pub or two, and the town goes quiet early for most of the year. With the last trains and ferries leaving in the evening, a real night out in Naples or on Capri means staying over.

Sorrento has the far more dramatic landscape. Vesuvius sits across the bay, and behind the town a steep limestone ridge of lemon terraces drops to sheer coast. Trails run to Punta Campanella and the protected bay of Ieranto, with Monte Faito and the Path of the Gods close by, and kayaks and small boats explore the grottoes.

Bari's surroundings are flat olive country. The Alta Murgia plateau, about an hour inland, offers quiet walks and cycling on open karst grassland, and the Grotte di Castellana go underground, but there are no mountains or cliffs to compare.

Both are outstanding bases, and Sorrento has a slight edge for how much lies a short hop away. Pompeii is about half an hour by train, Capri is under an hour by ferry, Naples and its archaeological museum are about an hour off, and in summer boats run to Positano and Amalfi.

Bari's range covers a whole region: Matera's cave dwellings, the trulli of Alberobello, Ostuni and the Valle d'Itria, Castel del Monte, Trani's seafront cathedral and Baroque Lecce. The distances are longer, though, and the slow regional lines mean a car pays off inland.

Bari is the easier family base. Its sandy city beach suits small children, the old town lanes are free of traffic, and the Fasano safari park and the Grotte di Castellana make good outings.

Sorrento is just as welcoming, and the boats to Capri and the ruins of Pompeii go down well with children. The swimming is off piers and rocks into deep water, though, and many hotels sit on steep lanes without pavements, so families with young children tend to rely on a hotel pool.

Getting around is similar in both, and both centres are flat and easy on foot. What differs is how you get further out. Bari has a rail link to its airport and is the hub of several regional lines, but they are slow and infrequent enough that many visitors hire a car for the inland towns.

In Sorrento a car is more trouble than it is worth because of the narrow roads and restricted traffic zones. Instead you juggle the crowded Circumvesuviana, packed buses on the Amalfi hairpins and the ferries, which are often the most comfortable option.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Bari has a little more range. Via Sparano and the Murat streets have Italian fashion chains and some upmarket boutiques, and the best things to take home are edible: dried orecchiette, taralli, olive oil and wine.

Sorrento's lanes around Via San Cesareo lean heavily on lemon souvenirs. It does have a few genuine crafts, such as intarsia woodwork and leather sandals made to measure, but for fashion people go to Naples or Capri.

Bari is much the cheaper stay. Street food and trattoria meals are inexpensive, the main sights are free, and rooms are moderate apart from the July and August squeeze.

Sorrento charges resort prices in summer for sea-view rooms, terrace dinners, lido sunbeds and boat trips. Its cheap trains and buses, pizza away from the main squares and lower hotel rates in spring and late autumn soften this, but not to Bari's level.

Bari is clearly the place for a night at the theatre. The Teatro Petruzzelli, one of Italy's largest opera houses, stages opera, ballet and symphonic concerts, and in summer jazz and open-air concerts fill the piazzas and the castle.

Sorrento offers shows of Neapolitan song and tarantella put on for visitors, chamber music in the cloister of San Francesco and hotel pianists playing 'Torna a Surriento'. For opera you go to the San Carlo in Naples.

Sorrento is the better choice for a restful stay. Clifftop hotels have spas, pools and terraces over the bay, the villa gardens and lemon groves set a slow pace, and Ischia's thermal gardens by the sea are an hour away by ferry.

Bari has no bathing tradition and few spas outside hotels. Its relaxation lies in long lunches and the evening walk along the seafront, and for real pampering visitors go out to restored country estates.