Catania or Salerno?

Catania has the better swimming close to town, and two kinds of it. La Playa is a long sandy strip of beach clubs just south of the centre. To the north, the lava coast at Aci Castello and Aci Trezza has very clear water that you reach by ladders from rock platforms, with basalt sea stacks just offshore.

Salerno's city beaches are grey sand, and the water near the port is murky. For good swimming you head out of town, either south to the long sandy lidos towards Paestum or west to the pebbly Amalfi coves.

Catania has the more distinctive food culture, built on its street food. There are cone-shaped arancini, fried crispelle, pastries such as the cipollina, horse meat grilled on Via Plebiscito and pistachio granita with brioche for breakfast. Add the theatre of La Pescheria and the volcanic wines of Etna, and eating becomes a reason to go.

Salerno eats simply and well, with wood-fired pizza, pasta with clams and lemon pastries. Its local treasures come from just outside town: buffalo mozzarella eaten fresh on the day it is made, and colatura anchovy sauce from Cetara. It is honest everyday food, but with less range than Catania's.

Catania offers more to see in town. The whole centre is late baroque, rebuilt in lava stone after the 1693 earthquake. Via dei Crociferi is lined with churches, San Nicolò l'Arena is one of Europe's largest monasteries, and Roman ruins appear under the squares. The February Feast of Sant'Agata is one of Italy's largest religious processions.

Salerno's heritage is medieval and more compact. It has the Norman cathedral with Saint Matthew's crypt, the medicinal Giardino della Minerva and the Arechi Castle above the gulf. A day or two covers it, and the great ancient sites lie outside the city.

Catania goes out later and louder. Thanks to its large university, the lanes around Piazza Bellini and the Teatro Massimo fill with drinkers long after midnight. In summer, the beach clubs on La Playa become open-air dance floors.

Salerno's evenings are gentler. People drink outside the wine bars around Largo Campo and Via dei Mercanti, or take a passeggiata along the seafront with gelato. For a proper night out you go to Naples.

Both cities sit in spectacular country, and Catania edges ahead because an active volcano of about 3,300m is under an hour away. You can walk across lava flows and old craters on Etna, ski with a sea view in winter and wade through the basalt Alcantara Gorge.

Salerno's landscape is about cliffs and sea. The Amalfi Coast's mule tracks include the Path of the Gods, and the Cilento national park has wooded hills and wild headlands. Boat trips and kayaking along the coast are the classic summer outings.

Salerno is a superb base for day trips. Paestum's Greek temples and Pompeii are each about half an hour away by train, and ferries cross to Amalfi and Positano in season. Naples, Herculaneum and the palace at Caserta are also easy days out, all without a car.

Catania's day trips are excellent too: Ortigia in Siracusa, Taormina's theatre and the baroque towns of Noto, Modica and Ragusa. The difference is that the baroque circuit and the inland mosaics at Piazza Armerina are much easier with a hire car.

Neither city is built around children, and their strengths differ. Catania has the bigger days out: walking on old craters on Etna and the Etnaland theme park and water park, plus gently shelving sand at La Playa. The city streets themselves are hard work, with narrow pavements and little shade.

Salerno is easier day to day, thanks to its flat, car-free seafront with playgrounds and shallow sandy beaches to the south. The Luci d'Artista lights make it a winter treat. It has no theme park, though, and the old town is all steps.

Salerno is the easier place to manage without a car. The station, shopping street, seafront and old town lie along one walkable strip. Direct regional trains go to Naples, Pompeii and Paestum, and in summer ferries along the Amalfi Coast avoid the clogged coast road.

Catania's small baroque centre is pleasant on foot, but beyond it there is only a single metro line and slow buses stuck in traffic. Many visitors hire a car for Etna and the baroque towns, and then struggle to park in the centre.

Shopping is ordinary in both cities, with chain-store streets in each: uphill Via Etnea in Catania, and pedestrian Corso Vittorio Emanuele in Salerno, where the evening passeggiata passes. The real difference is in markets and souvenirs. Catania's daily La Fiera market and Bronte pistachio creams have more character. Salerno's best buys come from its neighbours: painted majolica from Vietri, limoncello and Cetara's colatura.

Both cities are easy on the budget for Italy, and they get expensive in different ways. In Catania, food is the bargain, since street food makes a full meal. The costs come from guided trips to the summit craters and the hire car many visitors want.

Salerno's main saving is its rooms, which cost far less than in the Amalfi cliff villages, so it works well as a base for the coast. Its extra costs are ferries over several days and entry to the big archaeological sites.

Catania has the stronger musical identity as Bellini's birthplace. The Teatro Massimo Bellini runs a proper opera and symphony season, there is a museum of his manuscripts, and small companies still perform the opera dei pupi, the Sicilian puppet theatre of knights and Saracens.

Salerno's gilded Teatro Verdi, modelled on the San Carlo in Naples, offers a respectable season. Its best evening may be outside town, at a Ravello Festival concert on the cliff-top terraces.

Neither city is a retreat, and both have hotel spas rather than any bathing tradition. In Salerno you can sit in open-air sulphur pools at Contursi Terme about an hour inland, or take a slow sunset walk along the palm-lined seafront. In Catania, rest means staying in the quieter villages on Etna's slopes and enjoying long lunches, away from the noise of the centre.