Bologna or Salerno?

Salerno is a seaside city, and Bologna is not. In Salerno the grey sand of the city beaches is fine for a quick dip, the long sandy shore towards Paestum suits a full day under the pines, and the coves around Cetara and Amalfi have the clear water.

From Bologna, swimming means an hour's train ride to Rimini and an organised lido on the green, shallow Adriatic. That works as an escape from the summer heat, but it will never be the point of the trip.

Bologna is the stronger food city. Tagliatelle al ragù, tortellini in brodo and mortadella are made with care in old osterie, and the Quadrilatero market lanes and the producers of Parma and Modena nearby make eating a reason to come in itself.

Salerno's cooking is lighter and coastal: fried seafood, pasta with clams, wood-fired pizza and buffalo mozzarella eaten fresh on the day it is made. It is honest everyday food rather than a culinary pilgrimage, though in high summer it may suit better than Bologna's rich, heavy dishes.

Bologna has far more to see in its own streets. The UNESCO porticoes, San Petronio, the Two Towers, the seven churches of Santo Stefano and the university palaces make a dense, intact medieval centre that rewards two or three full days.

Salerno's highlights are the Norman cathedral with the relics of Saint Matthew, the medicinal garden linked to Europe's first medical school, and the Arechi Castle above the gulf. They are worth seeing but quickly covered, and the region's great ancient sites lie outside the city.

Bologna's student population keeps it going out late most of the year. The cheap bars around Piazza Verdi, the taverns of Via del Pratello and the wine bars near the Quadrilatero give a choice of moods, though August goes very quiet.

Salerno's nights centre on a few old-town squares around Largo Campo, mostly at weekends and in summer, with the seafront passeggiata for gelato before that. It is sociable but small, and anyone after more heads to Naples.

Salerno has the more spectacular setting. The cliffs and lemon terraces of the Amalfi Coast, the Path of the Gods and the Valle delle Ferriere in the Lattari mountains, and the gorges and headlands of the Cilento are all close, along with kayaking and boat trips at sea.

Bologna offers gentler green space: the walk up to San Luca, the Colli Bolognesi, the gypsum caves of the Parco dei Gessi and the start of the Via degli Dei to Florence. The higher Apennines are further off, and the plain to the north is flat farmland.

Both cities are outstanding bases, but for different outings. From Bologna, fast and regional trains reach Renaissance and medieval art cities: Florence in barely half an hour, Ravenna's mosaics, Ferrara, Modena, Parma and, a little further, Venice and Verona.

From Salerno the days out are ancient and coastal: the Greek temples of Paestum and Pompeii each about half an hour by train, Herculaneum and Naples, and ferries to Amalfi and Positano with Ravello above. Those ferries only run in season, while Bologna's rail links work all year.

Neither city is built around children, and neither has a zoo or aquarium, but they help in different ways. Bologna's centre is flat and largely car-free, with porticoes for shade, and climbing the Asinelli tower is a small adventure. For a big day out, families go to Mirabilandia.

Salerno has the long, flat seafront promenade with playgrounds and the shallow sandy beaches to the south. Against that, its old town is all steps, and the winding coast roads can be hard on carsick children.

Bologna is the easier city to get around. Its compact, flat centre is mostly closed to cars and covered by arcades, and the main station at the edge of the old town connects to all of northern Italy.

Salerno is walkable along its central strip and has a short metro line, which Bologna lacks. The castle needs a bus, though, and reaching the Amalfi Coast means seasonal ferries or slow, crowded buses on a road where driving is stressful.

Bologna has a little more range. Food is what visitors take home from the Quadrilatero, but there is also a small luxury cluster on Via Farini and in the Galleria Cavour, the Montagnola market and independent bookshops in the university quarter.

Salerno's Corso Vittorio Emanuele is mostly chain stores. Its most characteristic buys come from nearby: Vietri majolica, limoncello and Cetara's colatura.

Salerno is the cheaper place to stay. Its rooms cost far less than in the coastal villages, and local pizzerias and regional trains charge what locals pay. Costs rise in high summer with sunbeds, repeated ferries and entry to the big archaeological sites.

In Bologna, eating and aperitivo are good value and most sights are free, but old-town hotels are priced like prosperous northern Italy and become scarce during the large trade fairs.

Bologna has the deeper scene. Besides the Teatro Comunale's opera and symphonic season, it has a long jazz tradition in small clubs, student indie gigs and summer concerts and films in Piazza Maggiore, which together earn its UNESCO City of Music title.

Salerno's gilded Teatro Verdi stages a respectable opera and concert season, but little else happens in the city. Its special evening is a Ravello Festival concert on the cliff-top terraces above Amalfi.

Neither city has its own bathing culture, so in town both offer hotel spas and long lunches. Bologna has thermal water closer at hand, with the spring-fed pools of Castel San Pietro Terme about twenty minutes away and the old spa town of Porretta Terme in the Apennines.

Salerno's nearest thermal pools, at Contursi Terme, are about an hour inland. What it has instead is a palm-lined seafront for slow sunset walks, which is calmer than Bologna's noisy university quarter.