Bergamo or Matera?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Matera's water is the better day out. The Ionian shore around Metaponto and Policoro has wide sandy beaches backed by pine woods. The sea there is calm and shallow enough for children, though you need a car to reach it.

Bergamo's swimming is in lakes. You can swim at Iseo's lidos around Sarnico and Lovere, or on the Lecco arm of Como, from pebbles, lawns or concrete platforms. These places are pleasant on a hot day but lack the long stretches of sand Matera can reach.

Bergamo eats a little better and with more variety. Its Lombard mountain cooking brings casoncelli in sage butter, polenta with game, and some of Italy's great cheeses, such as Taleggio and Strachitunt. Franciacorta sparkling wine comes from next door, and the province has a fine-dining tier that Matera lacks.

Matera's table is simpler peasant food from Basilicata: its horn-shaped durum bread, crapiata, fave e cicoria, and crackling peperoni cruschi with a glass of Aglianico. It is satisfying and honest, but the choice soon runs out.

The two are evenly matched, but the experiences are completely different. Bergamo offers classic Italian art and architecture. There is the Venetian-walled Città Alta, the marble front of the Cappella Colleoni, and the Accademia Carrara with its Raphael, Bellini and Mantegna.

Matera's appeal is the place itself. In the Sassi, cave dwellings, rock churches with faded Byzantine frescoes and furnished cave houses tell a story of continuous habitation from prehistory to the 1950s. Choose Bergamo for paintings and piazzas, and Matera for a townscape that feels like nowhere else.

Neither is a party town, but Bergamo gives you a little more to do after dinner. In the lower town, a long aperitivo on Via XX Settembre or in Borgo Santa Caterina leads on to wine bars and pubs, and Milan is close for anything bigger.

In Matera, the evening is the passeggiata along Via del Corso followed by a drink above the lit Sassi. Outside summer, the town goes quiet soon after dinner.

Bergamo has the bigger outdoors. The Colli di Bergamo rise straight from the walls. Beyond them, Val Brembana and Val Seriana lead into the Orobie Alps, with rifugi, high lakes and serious summer hiking, and Lake Iseo and Lake Como are good for sailing and cycling.

Matera's landscape is wilder and on a smaller scale. A path drops from the Sassi into the Gravina gorge and climbs to the Murgia plateau, where there are abandoned rock churches and Neolithic sites. The Lucanian Dolomites and Pollino need a long drive.

Both make strong bases, but Bergamo's outings are easier to reach and more varied. Milan's Last Supper, the towns of Lake Como, Brescia and Verona are all reachable by train. Monte Isola and Crespi d'Adda are closer still.

From Matera, the trulli of Alberobello, the white towns of the Valle d'Itria, Castel del Monte and Polignano a Mare are all about an hour away. The trips are memorable, but almost every one needs a car.

Bergamo is the more relaxed choice with children. The funicular rides and gelato on the walls fill an afternoon. Leolandia, with its rides and miniature Italy, is about twenty minutes away, and Le Cornelle wildlife park makes an easy half day.

In Matera, older children enjoy the caves and the underground cistern, but nothing is designed for them. The Sassi's steps rule out a pushchair, and summer afternoons are hot with little shade.

Bergamo is far easier without a car. Funiculars connect the lower town, the Città Alta and San Vigilio, the airport is a short bus ride away, and direct trains run to Milan, Brescia and Lecco.

Matera is easy enough on foot, though the stairways down into the Sassi tire the legs. It is off the national rail network, so leaving town means a slow narrow-gauge train to Bari, sparse buses, or more realistically a hire car.

Bergamo has the better shops, though it is no fashion capital. The arcaded Sentierone and Via XX Settembre cover mid-range Italian brands, the Città Alta's main lane is full of cheese and wine sellers, and Milan is close for anything serious.

Matera's shopping is mostly souvenirs: painted cuccù whistles, tufa carvings of the Sassi, and bags of dried peppers to take home.

Costs are broadly similar, but the savings are in different places. In Bergamo, the fairly priced hotels in the lower town and cheap funicular rides make it a sensible base. The Città Alta charges more for rooms and meals.

In Matera, food is the bargain, especially in the trattorias of the upper town. The cave hotels in the Sassi cost more, but guesthouses in the newer town are cheaper, and walking the Sassi and the Murgia costs nothing.

Bergamo, the birthplace of Donizetti, has a real stage life. The Teatro Donizetti runs a season of opera and concerts, and its autumn festival of his works draws serious opera lovers. Bergamo Jazz fills the spring, and La Scala is an easy evening trip.

Matera has little more than conservatory concerts and open-air summer events against the Sassi. The Festa della Bruna, when a papier-mâché float is torn apart, is its one big night.

Bergamo has proper thermal options nearby. San Pellegrino Terme's grand historic spa is about forty minutes up Val Brembana, and Trescore Balneario's sulphur springs date back to Roman times.

Matera has no bathing tradition. Its spas are inside hotels, though some are candlelit cave rooms with pools cut into the rock, and the real rest comes from quiet mornings and dusk over the gorge.