Kotor or Lecce?

Neither town is a beach town, but Lecce's coast is a far better reason to come. Half an hour away are the pale coves and sea stacks of Torre dell'Orso, and on the Ionian side Porto Cesareo has long, shallow sand and very clear water. In summer the beach sets the rhythm of the whole day.

At Kotor you swim off concrete platforms and jetties in the calm but enclosed inner bay. For real sand you have to drive over the hill to Jaz or the coves around Budva, so a beach day is an outing rather than part of the stay.

Lecce has the stronger and more distinctive food culture. The day runs from warm pasticciotto and iced almond coffee to rustico at mid-morning, then orecchiette with turnip tops and fava purée with chicory, all served simply and cheaply in the old town.

Kotor's best food comes from the bay and the mountains: mussels, black cuttlefish risotto, Njegusi ham and Vranac wine. But the terrace restaurants inside the walls are uneven, and the better konobas are out in Dobrota, Prcanj and Perast. Neither city offers much beyond its regional cooking.

Both are townscapes to wander rather than museum cities, but Lecce has more of everything. Its honey-coloured Baroque spreads across dozens of churches, with Santa Croce's carved facade and the enclosed Piazza del Duomo as highlights, plus a half-excavated Roman amphitheatre and the Castle of Charles V.

Kotor is smaller and more dramatic. A UNESCO-listed triangle of marble lanes surrounds the twelfth-century Cathedral of St Tryphon, and the Venetian walls climb the cliff behind it. You can see it all in a few hours, while Lecce rewards several days.

Lecce makes for the better evening. After the passeggiata and an aperitivo on the piazzas, the wine bars and small cocktail bars in the lanes stay busy, and students keep weekends going for most of the year. Kotor is a drink on a square under the floodlit walls, with a few late bars in summer and very little after the season ends. For dancing, both send you to the coast: Budva for Kotor and the Gallipoli discos for Lecce.

This is Kotor's strongest card. Limestone walls rise more than 1,000m from the water, the old mule track zigzags up towards Krstac, and Lovcen's beech woods and karst meadows look out over the bay to the open Adriatic. Kayaking along the shore and the wetlands of Lake Skadar add to it.

Around Lecce the land is a flat plain of olive groves and red earth, good only for easy cycling. Its outdoors is the coast: the cliffs and sea caves between Otranto and Santa Maria di Leuca, the Alimini lakes for birds, and good snorkelling and diving.

Both make excellent bases, with similar travel times, so the difference is in the kind of outing. Kotor's best trips are on the bay itself. Perast and the island church of Our Lady of the Rocks are twenty minutes away, and Herceg Novi stands at the bay's mouth. Cetinje, the old royal capital, is about an hour away over Lovcen. Dubrovnik and the cliff monastery of Ostrog each take a longer day, and Dubrovnik means crossing a border.

Lecce's trips spread across a flat peninsula of old stone towns. Otranto and its cathedral mosaic are within the hour, along with Gallipoli on its island and the frescoes of Galatina. Further north are white Ostuni and the trulli of Alberobello, which take up to two hours. Taranto adds Greek antiquities. Most of these trips need a car, whereas some of Kotor's bay villages can also be reached by boat.

Lecce is the easier place for children. The shallow, sandy beaches around Porto Cesareo suit small swimmers, and evenings on the traffic-free piazzas are full of local families eating gelato. Kotor's car-free lanes and street cats delight young children, and a boat to Perast works well. But its main sight is a steep, hot climb, the old town is packed at midday, and the sandy beaches are a drive away. Neither has a zoo or theme park.

The two are much alike. Each has a compact, flat centre you can cover on foot, and each makes you hire a car to explore further. Kotor's old town is entirely car-free, though the marble is slippery when wet. Outside it, the single road round the bay jams in summer, while water taxis link some of the villages.

Lecce has a railway station at the edge of the old town with fast trains to Brindisi and Bari, but the local Salento lines are slow and the beach buses run only in summer.

Lecce gives you more to browse, though neither is a shopping destination. Its papier-mâché saints from old-town workshops, small carvings in local limestone and Grottaglie ceramics are real local crafts, and there are a few fashion shops on the main streets. Kotor's lanes mostly sell souvenirs, cat trinkets and silver filigree, so the best things to take home are Vranac and Njegusi ham. For brands, people head to the Tivat marina.

Costs are much the same in both, and the pattern is the same too: simple local meals and wine are cheap, and August is expensive. In Kotor the premium falls inside the walls, so a private apartment in Dobrota or Muo saves money. In Lecce the whole Salento fills with Italian vacationers, and a hire car and beach-club loungers add to the bill. Visit either in May, June or September for the best balance.

Lecce offers more live performance. The Politeama Greco and Paisiello theatres run a modest season of opera and drama, and in summer the pizzica tambourine dance fills village festivals, ending in the huge Notte della Taranta at Melpignano. Kotor has no regular season. Its live culture is the summer festival of recitals in churches and squares, plus the carnival and the decorated boats of Boka Night.

Lecce is the more restful place. The town slows down for the long afternoon closing, the sulphur pools of Santa Cesarea Terme sit in grottoes above the sea, and converted masserie on the plain offer quiet spa retreats. In Kotor, rest comes from early mornings on the water and long lunches in the shore villages, away from the crowds at midday. Its only spas are in resort hotels.