Como or Matera?

Neither is a beach destination, but the swimming is very different. In Como you take a dip at a lido with lawns and pontoons, such as the one by Villa Olmo, or catch a ferry to the pebble jetties of Moltrasio and the Tremezzina, all within easy reach of town.

Matera has no water at all, but about 45 minutes away by car the Ionian coast at Metaponto and Policoro offers long sandy beaches with shallow, warmer water that suits children. The catch is that you need a car to get there, while Como's lake swims are a ferry ride or a walk away.

Both kitchens are regional and small-town, so the difference is in what lands on the plate. Como cooks from the lake and the Alpine valleys: perch risotto, sun-dried shad, polenta with game, and an aperitivo ritual on the squares around the cathedral, though lakefront terraces often charge for the view.

Matera's cooking is rustic southern peasant food built around its famous durum-wheat bread, with fava beans and chicory, hand-made cavatelli, crackling dried peppers and Aglianico to drink. Dining in a carved cave room in the Sassi is part of the appeal, but the upper town often feeds you better.

Matera is in a different league here. The Sassi are a whole townscape of cave dwellings and stacked houses inhabited since prehistory, with rock churches such as Santa Maria de Idris holding medieval frescoes, furnished cave homes, MUSMA's sculpture in carved rooms and the vast cistern under the main piazza.

Como's sights are fewer and more conventional, though genuinely good: the marble cathedral, the Romanesque San Fedele and Sant'Abbondio, Terragni's Casa del Fascio for architecture lovers, and the Volta and silk museums. A day covers them, whereas Matera repays several days of wandering.

Both go quiet early and neither has clubs. Como's evenings are an aperitivo, dinner and a lakefront stroll, with Milan's nightlife a train ride away for anyone who wants more. Matera's best moments are a drink in a cave bar or on a terrace above the lit Sassi, with a small student crowd keeping things a little livelier in summer.

Como has the bigger and more varied outdoors. A glacial lake hemmed in by steep forested mountains gives ridge walks from Brunate, the long Via dei Monti Lariani, Alpine views from Monte Bisbino, and water sports and serious road cycling on top.

Matera's landscape is starker and closer to hand: the Gravina gorge right below town and the stony Murgia plateau with Neolithic sites and abandoned rock churches. Its bigger scenery, the Lucanian Dolomites and the Pollino forests, needs a long drive, and summer heat on the plateau limits walking.

Both are excellent bases, but Como's options are easier and grander. Ferries reach Bellagio, Varenna and the gardens of Villa Carlotta and Balbianello, while trains bring the Last Supper in Milan, Lugano and Bergamo within a morning, no car required.

Matera's list is strong too, with the trulli of Alberobello, the white towns of the Valle d'Itria, Castel del Monte and ghostly Craco all around an hour away. Almost every one of them needs a hire car, which makes the planning harder.

Como is the easier family destination. Children like the ferries, the funicular and summer lidos, and the flat promenade and Villa Olmo gardens work well with a pushchair, even if little is built specially for kids.

Matera's steep, uneven stone steps make pushchairs useless and summer afternoons are hot and shadeless. Older children enjoy the caves and the cistern, but younger ones fare better with a short stay and car trips to the Ionian sand.

Como is far better connected. The centre is flat and walkable, two stations serve Milan and a line runs to Lugano, and ferries reach every lake village, even if slowly and with summer traffic on the shore roads.

Matera is easy on foot in the upper town, but the Sassi mean steep stairways. Beyond the town it sits off the national rail network, with only a slow narrow-gauge line to Bari and sparse buses, so a hire car is close to essential.

Como has a real speciality in silk, with scarves and ties from old-town specialists and mill outlets that supply the fashion houses, plus a short run of Italian boutiques and Milan close by. Matera's shopping is souvenir-scale: cuccù whistles, tufa carvings and ceramics in the Sassi, and dried peppers, pasta and Aglianico as the best things to carry home.

Matera is the easier place on the wallet. Trattorias in the upper town are cheap by Italian standards, guesthouses in the newer town cost far less than the cave hotels, and the main pleasure, walking the Sassi and the Murgia, is free.

Como draws an international luxury crowd, and summer lakeside hotels and villa rentals are expensive, with lakefront dining priced for the view. Staying back from the water, eating in the hills and coming in spring or autumn bring it down, and trains and ferries are cheap.

Como has the steadier programme, thanks to the Teatro Sociale, a neoclassical opera house with a season of opera, concerts, ballet and theatre, plus summer shows in its open-air Arena and chamber music in churches and villas. La Scala is also a short train ride away.

Matera has no comparable house. The conservatory, a summer jazz festival and open-air events against the Sassi fill a few nights, and the Festa della Bruna is the big spectacle of the year, but most evenings are just dinner and the view.

Neither has thermal baths, so it comes down to setting and spas. Como offers more: the grand villa hotels have proper spas, and the still lake, waterside gardens and slow ferry rides to quiet villages are restful in themselves, best in spring and autumn.

Matera's spas are fewer but memorable, with pools cut into candlelit cave rooms. Its calm lies in the early mornings in the Sassi and evenings watching the light fade over the gorge, especially from autumn to spring.