Cortina d'Ampezzo or Lecce?

There is no real contest here. In Cortina, swimming means a cold dip in a snowmelt lake such as Ghedina or an hour in a hotel pool, and the Adriatic is more than two hours' drive away.

Lecce has two seas within reach. To the east are the pale coves and sea stacks of Torre dell'Orso, and on the Ionian side the long, shallow sands of Porto Cesareo. In summer the days revolve around the water, though you need a car or the seasonal buses to reach it.

Both kitchens are regional and narrow, but they feel very different. Cortina serves Ampezzan mountain cooking, such as casunziei and polenta with game. It is best eaten on a rifugio terrace, and there is very little that is cheap in the valley.

Lecce eats better, and more often through the day. It starts with a warm pasticciotto and iced coffee with almond milk in the morning and moves on to ciceri e tria in old-town osterie, with Negroamaro from the surrounding plain. Simple meals cost little, so you can eat out freely.

Cortina's sights fill a rainy afternoon: the tall bell tower of the basilica, the 1956 Olympic ice stadium and the Rimoldi collection of Italian art. Its most moving history, the First World War tunnels on Lagazuoi, takes a full day in the mountains.

Lecce is in another league for sightseeing. The whole old town is a Baroque townscape in honey-coloured stone, with Santa Croce, the enclosed Piazza del Duomo and a Roman amphitheatre half uncovered below Piazza Sant'Oronzo. Most of the pleasure comes simply from walking its streets.

Neither town is a reason to travel for nights out, but Lecce has more to its evenings. In Cortina the night means après-ski drinks, the passeggiata on the Corso Italia and a long dinner. Smart late bars open only in the peak winter weeks.

In Lecce the old-town lanes fill with wine bars and small cocktail bars, and students keep them going at weekends for most of the year. In summer the dancing moves out to beach clubs near Gallipoli.

Cortina has one of the world's great mountain settings. The Dolomites ring the town and lifts climb straight onto the Tofane and Cristallo. The Tre Cime and Lago di Misurina are under an hour away. Winter brings skiing across Dolomiti Superski, and summer brings the Alta Via 1 and some of the oldest via ferrata in the Alps.

Around Lecce, the outdoors means the coast rather than the land. Inland is a flat plain of olive groves. The coast has cliffs and sea caves from Roca Vecchia to Otranto, birdwatching in the Le Cesine wetlands and good snorkelling. It is pleasant, but gentle by comparison.

Most outings from Cortina head up into the peaks. The towns within reach, such as San Candido, Brunico and Bolzano with its Iceman, are agreeable rather than essential, and Venice is a long coach ride each way.

Lecce is the base for a much richer choice. Otranto's cathedral mosaic, Gallipoli on its island, frescoed Galatina, white Ostuni and the trulli of Alberobello are all easy day trips. A car makes most of them far simpler.

The two suit families about equally, and neither has a zoo or a theme park. What differs is how children spend the day. Cortina works for families who ski or hike: there are ski schools and beginner slopes at Socrepes, skating at the ice stadium and meadows beside the huts. Rainy days drag, though, and costs climb fast.

In Lecce, children have traffic-free piazzas full of families in the evening and gentle, sandy beaches around Porto Cesareo. In high summer you will need to plan around the midday heat.

Both have a small centre you can cross on foot, and both get harder to manage beyond it. Cortina has had no railway since 1964, so you arrive by coach from Venice or after a long drive, and buses up to the passes are infrequent. In winter, ski buses and lifts do most of the work.

Lecce is the easier of the two to reach by rail, with fast trains to Bari from a station at the edge of the old town. Out in the Salento, though, local trains are slow and the beach buses run only in summer. In both places most visitors end up hiring a car.

Cortina is the more polished place to shop, though almost all of it lies along a single street. The Corso Italia has luxury fashion, jewellers and mountain wear, and the Cooperativa di Cortina, founded in 1893, anchors it.

Lecce is about crafts and food rather than labels. The things to take home are cartapesta saints from old-town workshops, small carvings in local limestone and ceramics from Grottaglie, along with olive oil and taralli.

The two are far apart on cost. Cortina charges luxury-resort rates in the winter peak and in August, and lift passes and equipment hire add to the bill. Meals at the rifugi soften this only a little, and many budget travellers stay in cheaper valleys and drive in.

Lecce is good value for Italy, with cheap pastries and trattorias and fairly priced rooms in old palazzi. Only August, when the whole Salento fills up, pushes prices high.

Cortina has little beyond its summer chamber and classical festivals, held in churches and sometimes in mountain settings, plus the odd concert at New Year.

Lecce has real stages in the Teatro Politeama Greco and the Teatro Paisiello. It also has a living tradition of its own in pizzica, the tambourine dance you hear at village festivals all summer. It peaks with the huge open-air Notte della Taranta in nearby Melpignano in August.

Both are restful in their own way, and neither has a bathing tradition of its own. In Cortina, wellness means the Alpine hotel spa after a day on the slopes, with saunas, hay baths and indoor pools, and the clear, calm air of June and September.

Lecce's version is the slow southern day: the long afternoon rest, then evenings in the piazza. For taking the waters, there are sulphur pools in the sea grottoes of Santa Cesarea Terme, and spas in converted masserie out in the countryside.