Genoa or Lecce?

Lecce has the better beaches, though it sits inland and you need to get to them. Within about forty minutes there are long, shallow stretches of fine sand on the Ionian side and pale coves on the Adriatic, and in summer the whole day tends to be planned around the sea.

Genoa lets you swim inside the city, at Boccadasse's little cove, from the bathing platforms of Corso Italia or below Nervi's promenade. The shores along its Riviera are mostly pebble and coarse sand, packed with rented loungers. It works well for an afternoon swim between sights, but it is not really a beach destination.

Genoa eats a little better and with more variety. Pesto, pansoti in walnut sauce, harbour seafood and the old-town friggitorie selling farinata and fried fish give it a deeper table, with the Mercato Orientale showing off the region's produce.

Lecce's cooking is earthier and very much its own: pasticciotto and iced almond coffee for breakfast, ciceri e tria and orecchiette with turnip tops at the trattoria, and dark Negroamaro wine rather than Liguria's crisp whites. Both kitchens stay firmly regional, with few ambitious restaurants.

Genoa has a little more to see. Its caruggi make up one of Europe's largest medieval quarters, and above them the Rolli palaces on Via Garibaldi hold Van Dyck and Rubens. Add the striped cathedral, the Lanterna and Staglieno's marble cemetery, and you have days of sightseeing.

Lecce is a smaller, more unified place: a whole townscape of carved Baroque limestone, with Santa Croce and the Piazza del Duomo at dusk as the highlights, plus a half-buried Roman amphitheatre. Here the pleasure is in wandering rather than in museums.

Neither is a party city, and evenings in both revolve around aperitivo. Genoa's happen among the student bars around Piazza delle Erbe and the waterfront at Porto Antico. Lecce starts with the passeggiata, then moves on to wine and cocktail bars in the old-town lanes. If you want to dance in summer, Lecce sends you on a drive to the open-air discos near Gallipoli, while Genoa's beach clubs line the Corso Italia within the city.

Genoa is much the stronger choice for the outdoors. Steep green hills rise straight behind the port, with a fortress trail at Righi reached by funicular. Then there are the cliff paths of the Portofino promontory, the Cinque Terre terraces and the Apennine trails inland, plus boat trips to see whales and dolphins in the Pelagos Sanctuary.

Around Lecce the countryside is a flat plain of olive groves, better for gentle cycling than for hiking. The landscape that matters there is the coast: the sea caves and stacks from Roca Vecchia to Leuca, and wetlands for birdwatching at Le Cesine and the Alimini lakes.

Genoa makes the easier base for day trips, mainly thanks to the railway. Camogli, Portofino, Sestri Levante and the Cinque Terre all lie on one coastal line, and Milan and Turin are close enough for a museum day.

Lecce offers rewarding outings too: Otranto's cathedral mosaic, Gallipoli on its island, Galatina's frescoes and, further north, Ostuni and the trulli of Alberobello. Most of these mean driving, though, so Lecce needs more planning to get the same out of a week.

Genoa has far more for children, nearly all of it gathered around Porto Antico: one of Europe's largest aquariums, a science centre, the biosphere and a submarine you can walk through. Its steep, dim lanes and many stairs are hard going with a pushchair, though.

Lecce is gentler on parents. The old town is flat and largely free of traffic, and Porto Cesareo's shallow sand is ideal for small children. The catch is that there is almost nothing built for them, and the summer heat means planning every day around the beach and an afternoon rest.

Genoa is easier to manage without a car. Funiculars, public lifts and a short metro line deal with the hills, and the coastal railway reaches Nervi and the Riviera towns in no time, even if the city buses are slow.

Lecce's centre is flatter and simpler to walk, but beyond the walls the trains are slow and infrequent and the beach buses run only in summer. Most visitors end up hiring a car to reach the coast.

Genoa has the more useful shopping streets. The arcades of Via XX Settembre and the Galleria Mazzini cover the main Italian labels, and the old town adds silver filigree, coral, candied fruit and pesto.

Lecce's range is narrower, but its crafts are more particular to the place: cartapesta saints made in old-town workshops, small carvings in local stone and ceramics from Grottaglie. Neither city is worth a trip for shopping alone.

Both cities are fair value by Italian standards, with cheap street food in each: focaccia and farinata in Genoa, rustico and pasticciotto in Lecce. Where they differ is in what pushes the bill up. In Genoa it is the smart Riviera resorts and paying for loungers. In Lecce it is August, when rooms jump in price, plus the cost of a hire car that most trips require.

Genoa offers more on stage. The Teatro Carlo Felice runs a full season of opera, ballet and symphony concerts, and the city also has Paganini concerts and small clubs that keep its singer-songwriter tradition going.

Lecce's theatres have a modest programme, and much of the year is quiet. Its distinctive music is pizzica, the tambourine dance played at village festivals all summer, which peaks with the huge open-air Notte della Taranta at Melpignano in August.

Lecce is the more restful of the two. The long afternoon closure and evenings spent sitting in the piazzas slow the pace down, the sulphur grottoes of Santa Cesarea Terme are close by on the cliffs, and masserie in the countryside have been turned into quiet spa retreats.

Genoa's port, traffic and packed lanes make it lively rather than calming. Nervi's gardens are the main place to unwind, and the nearest thermal baths are inland at Acqui Terme.