Cortina d'Ampezzo or Positano?

Positano is a beach town and Cortina is not. Spiaggia Grande and the calmer Fornillo sit right below the houses. Arienzo and Laurito are a stairway or short boat ride away, and the water is clear and warm through summer. Bring water shoes for the coarse, steep shore.

Cortina is a high valley more than two hours from the Adriatic. Lago Ghedina and Pianozes are lovely to walk round, but they are fed by snowmelt and stay cold, so most swimming happens in a hotel pool.

The two eat about as well as each other, but the food could hardly be more different. Cortina serves mountain food with a Venetian accent: casunziei with poppy seeds, polenta with game, barley soup, and wines from the Veneto and South Tyrol. Its best meals tend to come on rifugio terraces high among the peaks.

Positano cooks the sea and the lemon: spaghetti with clams, scialatielli with seafood, grilled fish and limoncello, all with the water below the terrace. Both have a narrow range with little that is cheap, and many of Positano's kitchens close between November and Easter.

Neither is a place for sightseeing, and each has a few hours' worth. Cortina has the bell tower of its basilica, the 1956 Olympic ice stadium and the Rimoldi collection of twentieth-century Italian art. Its most striking history, the First World War tunnels on Lagazuoi and the Cinque Torri, takes a day in the mountains to reach.

In Positano the town itself is the sight. Look for the majolica dome of Santa Maria Assunta and the painted Roman villa preserved under ash beneath it. For more, people go to Naples.

Both are quiet after dinner, but they come alive at opposite times of year. Cortina's evenings are après-ski and a passeggiata along the Corso Italia, with a few smart bars and clubs open late only in the peak winter weeks. Positano's busy season is summer: aperitivo with a sea view, a few bars near the beach and a club in a cave at the end of Spiaggia Grande. Both suit a long, unhurried dinner far better than a night out.

Both are superb places to be outdoors, but Cortina gives you far more to do. It has a whole range to explore in both seasons. Winter means skiing across the linked Dolomiti Superski area. Summer brings multi-day treks between huts on the Alta Via 1, via ferrata routes laid along old wartime paths, climbing, mountain biking and paragliding. The lifts take you up among the Tofane and Cristallo minutes after leaving town, and landmarks such as the Tre Cime are an easy morning's drive away.

Positano's outdoors is narrower but unlike anything in the Alps, because the mountains and the sea fill the same view. The Path of the Gods is one of Italy's great coastal walks, high above the lemon terraces. The water adds what Cortina cannot: kayaking or a hired boat along the cliffs to sea caves and the Li Galli islets. There is no snow, though, and the walking comes down to a few classic routes rather than a range you could spend weeks in.

Positano has far more within a day's reach. Ferries run to Amalfi and its paper mills, to Ravello's gardens and, in about half an hour, to Capri. Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Greek temples of Paestum are all manageable, as long as you remember the ferries mostly run only from spring to autumn.

From Cortina, most outings lead further into the mountains. The towns of South Tyrol, Bolzano with the Iceman, and Lienz across the Austrian border are pleasant rather than essential, and Venice is a long day by coach.

Cortina is clearly better with children, as long as the family skis or walks. There are ski schools for every age, beginner slopes at Socrepes, public skating at the Olympic stadium, and easy trails to huts with meadows to run around in. Rainy days can drag, because there is nothing built for children indoors.

Positano is a town of stairs where pushchairs are useless. Its beaches shelve quickly, which suits confident older children who love boats and swimming far more than toddlers.

Cortina is the easier of the two, though neither is simple. Its centre is flat and quick to cross, and in winter ski buses and lifts do most of the work. With no railway since 1964 and only a limited bus service up to the passes, though, a hire car is the practical way to see the wider Dolomites.

In Positano a car is more of a problem than a help. Every walk means hundreds of steps, the coast buses crawl in summer, and the seasonal ferries are the easiest way to reach the neighbouring towns.

Shopping is about equal, and each town sells its own look. Cortina's Corso Italia offers luxury fashion, jewellers, furriers and serious mountain wear, anchored by the Cooperativa di Cortina, founded in 1893, alongside wood carving and filigree.

Positano's lanes sell moda Positano: loose white linen, bright resort prints and sandals cut to fit while you wait, along with ceramics and lemon soaps. Both are polished, but neither goes far beyond its one style.

Both rank among the most expensive places to stay in Italy, and the costs simply fall in different places. In Cortina, lift passes and equipment hire add to luxury hotel rates, though meals at the rifugi are fair for the setting and many people save by staying in cheaper valleys nearby.

In Positano the extras are loungers, boat trips and transfers. The usual saving is to sleep in Praiano or Sorrento and come in by bus or ferry, and May and October are kinder than high summer.

There is little to see in either town, so go for the scenery rather than a season of performances. Cortina's summer chamber and classical festivals bring concerts to churches and sometimes to mountain settings, plus talks and cultural evenings.

Positano itself manages only occasional summer concerts. Its advantage is Ravello's summer music festival on a terrace above the sea, close enough for an evening, with Naples further off for opera.

For rest, the two are on a par. Neither has a bathing tradition, so wellness means hotel spas: Alpine saunas, hay baths and indoor pools in Cortina, and treatment rooms and pools cut into the cliff in Positano.

What differs is how each one calms you. In Cortina it is clear air and a hut terrace in June, September or a quiet winter week. In Positano it is a slow lunch above the sea in May, June or late September, away from the August crowds and the tiring stairs.