Kalambaka or Lecce?

Kalambaka has no beach to speak of. It lies deep inland on the Thessalian plain, so swimming means a hotel pool or a cold river in the Pindos. Save your sea days for another part of the trip.

Lecce is also slightly inland, but the Salento coast is close. Within about half an hour you reach the pale coves and sea stacks of Torre dell'Orso. On the Ionian side, Porto Cesareo and Punta Prosciutto have long, shallow beaches of fine sand. In summer you can easily spend every morning by the sea.

Both towns serve their own regional cooking, but Lecce's is more distinctive and more varied. Kalambaka's tavernas in town and in Kastraki serve generous grilled lamb, bean soups, pies and tsipouro with meze. The menu changes little from one table to the next, and the view of the rocks at sunset is a large part of the meal.

In Lecce, food shapes the whole day. You start with pasticciotto and iced almond-milk coffee, have a rustico mid-morning, and finish with ciceri e tria or fava purée with chicory in an old-town osteria, with dark Primitivo to drink. Neither place offers much beyond local food.

Kalambaka has one great subject. The frescoed monasteries of Meteora, such as the Great Meteoron, Varlaam and Roussanou, sit on top of rock pillars and are reached by rock-cut steps. They are unforgettable, but once you have seen them and the Byzantine church in town, two days are enough.

Lecce has more depth for a culture trip. Its whole old town is carved in honey-coloured Baroque limestone, from Santa Croce to the enclosed Piazza del Duomo, with a Roman amphitheatre half uncovered below Piazza Sant'Oronzo and Messapian layers underground. You enjoy it by walking the streets over several days rather than ticking off museums.

Kalambaka goes to bed early. An evening means dinner and perhaps a drink at a café-bar on the central square. For anything livelier you have to drive half an hour to Trikala.

Lecce has a real evening routine: the passeggiata, an aperitivo on the piazzas, then wine and cocktail bars in the old-town lanes, with students keeping weekends going late. In summer, dancing moves out to beach clubs near Gallipoli.

Kalambaka is built around its landscape. Grey pillars rise around 400m above the plain right behind the town, and old monks' footpaths climb through oak woods to the clifftops. The rock is one of Europe's best-known climbing areas. Further west, the Pindos adds fir forests at Pertouli, rafting on the Aspropotamos and small ski slopes near Metsovo.

Lecce's outdoors is mostly the sea. Around the town is a flat plain of olive groves, good only for easy cycling. The interest is on the coast: clifftop paths and sea caves from Roca Vecchia to Leuca, snorkelling and diving, birdwatching at Le Cesine, and the pine woods above Porto Selvaggio.

Lecce is the better base for day trips. Walled Otranto with its cathedral mosaic, Gallipoli's island old town, white Ostuni, the trulli of Alberobello and Taranto's museum of Greek antiquities are all within an easy drive, along with frescoed Galatina closer in.

Kalambaka has fewer but varied options. You can visit Trikala's Varousi quarter and castle, the stone village of Metsovo over the Pindos, or Ioannina's lakeside castle quarter, with the Zagori villages at the limit of a day out. In both regions you will want a car.

Lecce is easier with children. The old town is largely free of traffic, families fill the piazzas in the evening with gelato in hand, and the shallow sand at Porto Cesareo suits toddlers. In midsummer, plan the day around the beach and a long midday rest.

Kalambaka can thrill older children who can manage the trails or a beginners' climb. Younger ones struggle with the long flights of steps, the dress rules and the hushed monastery interiors. One or two nights is usually enough here.

The two are much alike: each has a small, flat centre you can walk, and each needs a car for the wider region. The difference is where the hard part lies. In Kalambaka it is the climb to the monasteries several kilometres up a winding road, where the bus is infrequent, so you either hike for an hour or take a taxi.

In Lecce the old town is easy, and the station at its edge has fast trains to Bari. The difficulty is reaching the beaches and Salento villages, where trains are slow and buses run only in summer. Driving inside the walls is restricted, so park outside.

Lecce has more worth taking home. Its workshops make cartapesta saints and nativity figures, and you can also find limestone carvings, Grottaglie ceramics, olive oil and taralli. It is still browsing rather than a shopping trip.

Kalambaka offers one street of painted icons, honey, herbs and tsipouro, plus the religious items sold at the monasteries themselves.

Kalambaka is the cheaper stay. Family guesthouses and taverna meals cost little, and monastery entry fees are small. Prices rise mainly over Orthodox Easter, on national long weekends and at hotels facing the rocks.

Lecce is good value for Italy, with cheap street pastries and fairly priced B&Bs in old palazzi. August is the exception, when rooms and beach loungers become expensive across the Salento. In both places, car hire adds to the bill.

Lecce has a live culture and Kalambaka does not. The Politeama Greco and the historic Teatro Paisiello stage opera, concerts and theatre. In summer, pizzica tambourine music fills village festivals and peaks at the huge Notte della Taranta night in Melpignano.

In Kalambaka, live music is limited to the odd taverna musician or village festival. The Byzantine chant at a monastery service is worship, not a show.

Lecce has more to offer for rest and spa time. The sulphur grottoes and clifftop pools of Santa Cesarea Terme are under an hour away, several old masserie on the plain have become quiet spa retreats, and the long afternoon rest sets a slow pace.

Kalambaka's calm is simply quiet: an early-sleeping town and soft dawn light on the rocks. For treatments, you are limited to a few hotel saunas and massage rooms.