Dubrovnik or Lecce?

Both give you a summer built around the sea, but the swimming is very different. In Dubrovnik you swim within minutes of your room, off the rocks below the seaward walls, at Banje or in the Lapad coves. The beaches are pebble and concrete platforms, and taxi boats reach quieter water on Lokrum or the sandy cove at Sunj on Lopud.

Lecce has no seafront of its own. The rewards are sandy: pale coves at Torre dell'Orso and long, shallow Ionian beaches at Porto Cesareo, reached by car or seasonal bus in half an hour or more. So it is sand and a drive against rock and a short walk.

Lecce eats better and more cheaply, and its food is very much its own: pasticciotto with almond-milk iced coffee in the morning, then ciceri e tria, orecchiette and fava purée, all easy to find in the old town itself.

In Dubrovnik the good cooking is mostly grilled fish, black risotto and Ston oysters, and you have to look for it. The Old Town tables lean towards the cruise crowds, so the better meals are in Lapad, Gruz or out in Konavle. In both places there is little to eat beyond the regional food.

These are two of the Adriatic's most complete historic centres, built in very different styles. Dubrovnik is a medieval and Renaissance city-state behind unbroken walls you can walk all the way round, with monasteries, the Rector's Palace and Fort Lovrijenac. It is fortress architecture, and it gets crowded on summer days.

Lecce's draw is ornament. Its honey-coloured limestone facades are carved with fruit, beasts and cherubs, most of all at Santa Croce, and Roman remains surface under Piazza Sant'Oronzo. Both have small museums, and both are best enjoyed on foot over two or three days.

Neither is a place to come for nightlife, and the evenings differ mainly in season. Dubrovnik's are a summer affair of sunset drinks at the bars cut into the rocks outside the walls, and the club in the Revelin fortress. The town goes quiet by midnight in winter.

Lecce keeps going through more of the year, thanks to its students and the habit of an aperitivo on the piazzas. Its summer dancing, though, moves out to beach clubs near Gallipoli, which means a drive.

Dubrovnik has the more dramatic setting. Steep limestone mountains meet a clear sea scattered with islands, so you can take the cable car or the path up Mount Srd, paddle to wooded Lokrum, cycle on the Elafiti islands or spend a day among the saltwater lakes and pines of Mljet.

Around Lecce the land is flat olive groves and dry-stone walls, so the outdoors means the coast. The clifftop paths and sea caves between Otranto and Leuca are lovely, and there is birdwatching at Le Cesine and diving off the cliffs, but it is gentler country overall.

Both make good bases. Dubrovnik's trips cross borders: the Bay of Kotor and Perast in Montenegro, Ottoman Trebinje under an hour away, and Mostar on a long day. There are also boats to Cavtat and the islands, but summer border queues can eat hours.

Lecce's trips stay inside one region and lean towards towns and art: Otranto's cathedral mosaic, Gallipoli on its island, the frescoes at Galatina and, further north, Ostuni and the trulli of Alberobello. Nearly all of them are much easier with a car.

Both work for families, but neither is built for children, and the obstacles differ. Dubrovnik offers boat rides, the cable car, the walls and a small aquarium. However, the stairs defeat pushchairs, so families usually stay near the Lapad beaches.

Lecce's flat, largely traffic-free centre and its family-filled evening piazzas are easier with small children. The shallow sand at Porto Cesareo is ideal for toddlers, but reaching it takes a car, and the midday heat needs planning.

Dubrovnik is easier to manage without a car. The Old Town is car-free and tiny, city buses link the hotel districts to the Pile gate, and ferries and taxi boats cover Lokrum, Cavtat and the islands. The catch is the gradient: stairways and hills make short distances hard work.

Lecce's centre is flatter and just as walkable, and fast trains run to Brindisi and Bari. Beyond the city, though, local trains are slow and the beach buses run only in summer, so most visitors end up hiring a car.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Lecce gives you a little more to browse. There is cartapesta from old-town workshops, carved limestone, Grottaglie ceramics and a few fashion shops.

Dubrovnik's streets are mostly souvenir shops. The things worth seeking out are Konavle embroidery, filigree jewellery and the figs and candied peel at the Gunduliceva Poljana market.

Dubrovnik is the dearer of the two by a wide margin. In summer a room in or near the Old Town costs what it would in a major Western European capital, meals along the main streets carry a premium, and the walls, the cable car and the boats to the islands soon add up. Coming in spring or autumn and sleeping in Lapad, Gruz or Cavtat cuts the room bill sharply, but even then a careful traveller spends noticeably more here.

Lecce's expensive stretch is far shorter. Only in August, when the Salento fills with Italian vacationers, do rooms and beach-club loungers turn dear. For the rest of the year the osterie, the local wine and the rooms in the old town stay fairly priced. The one cost Lecce adds is a hire car for the coast, and it rarely closes the gap.

Lecce has more going on for more of the year. The Politeama Greco and the Teatro Paisiello stage opera and concerts, and in summer the pizzica tambourine dance turns up at village festivals, peaking at the Notte della Taranta in Melpignano.

Dubrovnik's one great draw is its Summer Festival, held since 1950, with theatre and concerts in settings like Fort Lovrijenac and the Rector's Palace atrium. Outside July and August there is little beyond occasional orchestral and church concerts.

Lecce makes the more restful stay. The long afternoon closing sets a slow pace, Santa Cesarea Terme has sulphur pools in cliff grottoes under an hour away, and old masserie in the countryside work as quiet spa retreats.

In Dubrovnik, spas are mostly limited to the larger hotels, and the summer Old Town is anything but calm. For rest, go in spring or autumn, or stay on the Elafiti islands or in Cavtat instead.