Bari or Verona?

Bari is on the sea and Verona is not. Bari has the sandy Pane e Pomodoro beach and the rocky platforms around Torre Quetta on its own shoreline. The cliff-backed cove at Polignano a Mare and the inlets around Monopoli are a short regional train ride south.

Verona's swimming is in Lake Garda, about half an hour away. The water is calm and tideless, with lidos and lawns at Lazise and Bardolino and flat limestone shelves at Sirmione. It makes a pleasant summer afternoon, but the beaches are narrow and crowded at weekends, and few visitors choose Verona for the water.

Both cities eat well, but in very different ways. Bari's strength is street food and seafood: focaccia barese, panzerotti and sgagliozze sold from kitchen windows, orecchiette rolled by hand in the old-town lanes, and raw sea urchins and octopus by the fishermen's pier, all at fair prices.

Verona is about risotto, bigoli and bollito with pearà, eaten in wood-panelled osterie. Above all it is about wine, with Valpolicella, Amarone and Soave made within a short drive. It has little street food, and the tables around the Arena can be tired. Bari's weak point is a thin fine-dining and international range.

Verona has far more to see. Its UNESCO-listed centre holds the Roman Arena and theatre, the medieval squares of the Scaliger lords, the Romanesque San Zeno and the art museum in Carlo Scarpa's Castelvecchio, enough for two or three unhurried days.

Bari's sights are fewer and mostly in Bari Vecchia: the Basilica di San Nicola, a fine Apulian Romanesque church that draws Orthodox pilgrims, plus the cathedral and the Norman-Swabian castle. The nineteenth-century Murat grid adds a grand seafront. It is full of atmosphere and easily seen in a day or two.

Bari stays out later. On summer nights students and young locals fill Piazza Mercantile and Piazza Ferrarese, and the bars of the Umbertino streets carry on past midnight. In July and August the crowd moves to beach clubs along the coast.

In Verona the evening is built around the aperitivo, a spritz or a glass of Valpolicella in Piazza delle Erbe, and Veronetta's student bars are the main late option. There is no dance scene in the centre, and apart from opera nights the streets empty early.

Verona has the better outdoors because it sits at the foot of the Alps. The Valpolicella hills, the gorges and beech woods of the Lessinia, the Adige cycle route and the ridges of Monte Baldo above Lake Garda give proper walking and cycling. The north end of the lake is known for reliable wind for sailing and windsurfing.

Bari is surrounded by flat olive country. The Alta Murgia plateau, about an hour inland, suits quiet walks and cycling, and the Grotte di Castellana are worth a visit, but there are no mountains within easy reach.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference is in where you go. From Bari the trips are to small southern places: the cave city of Matera, the trulli of Alberobello, the white towns of the Valle d'Itria, Castel del Monte and Trani's cathedral by the sea, with Lecce for a longer day. Several of these are easier by car.

From Verona the trips are mostly to major art cities on a fast railway. Venice is just over an hour away, and Padua, Vicenza and Mantua are closer still. The Lake Garda towns and the wine cellars of Valpolicella and Soave add gentler days.

Verona is easier with children because the big attractions are close by. Gardaland, the water parks around Lake Garda and the Parco Natura Viva safari zoo are all about half an hour away, though most need a car or a transfer. In town, the Arena and the Roman theatre tend to catch a child's imagination.

Bari is just as welcoming and has a sandy city beach and traffic-free lanes, but little is made for children. The Grotte di Castellana and the Fasano safari park are the main outings. In both cities, summer afternoons are too hot to do much.

Both centres are flat and easy to walk, and Verona is a little simpler. Its sights sit close together inside a compact, largely traffic-free loop of the Adige, and the railway to Venice, Milan and Lake Garda is fast and frequent.

Bari's old town, Murat streets and promenade are also next to each other, and a rail link runs to the airport. Its regional lines to Matera and Alberobello are slow and infrequent, though, so more of its day trips need a hire car.

Neither city is a shopping destination, but Verona's shops are more polished. The marble-paved Via Mazzini has Italian fashion labels, Corso Porta Borsari has jewellers and shoe shops, and Milan is within reach for serious shopping.

Bari's Via Sparano is mostly chains with a few boutiques. In both cities the best things to take home are food and drink: orecchiette, taralli and olive oil in Bari, along with Puglian ceramics, and Amarone and pandoro in Verona.

Bari is the cheaper stay. Street food, a trattoria lunch and local wine cost little, and rooms are moderately priced outside July and August.

In Verona everyday eating is fairly priced, but hotels in the historic centre are expensive for a provincial city and become scarce on summer opera nights and during trade fairs. Staying near the station or in Veronetta brings costs down.

Verona has the bigger draw in summer opera at the Roman Arena, with grand Verdi and Puccini productions played to thousands on the ancient stone. The Roman theatre adds Shakespeare, dance and jazz under the stars, and the Teatro Filarmonico runs a season through the cooler months.

Bari's Teatro Petruzzelli, one of Italy's largest opera houses, has a serious season of opera, ballet and concerts, and a summer jazz festival uses the piazzas and the castle. Beyond that, there is little for visitors who do not speak Italian.

Verona is the better choice for unwinding because thermal water is close by. Sirmione's spa pools face Lake Garda, a spring-fed lake near Lazise sits in an old villa garden, and the springs at Caldiero have been used since Roman times. In town, the terraces of the Giardino Giusti are a quiet retreat.

Bari has no bathing tradition and only hotel spas. Relaxing there means long lunches, the afternoon break and the evening walk along the seafront. Visitors who want real pampering book a stay at a restored country estate outside the city.