La Spezia or Salerno?

Neither city is a beach resort, and the swimming is about equally good. What differs is the kind of beach. From La Spezia every swim is a trip out: rocky platforms with very clear water on Palmaria and at Portovenere, small pebble coves under the olive terraces at Tellaro, or the sand at Monterosso, a train ride away.

Salerno has grey-sand city beaches you can walk to, though the water near the port is murky. Its real strength is the long sandy shore towards Paestum, backed by pine woods, which suits a full day lying on the sand far better than anything near La Spezia.

Salerno eats better. Its cooking has Campania's depth: mozzarella made that morning on the plain towards Paestum, colatura from Cetara next door, wood-fired pizza and pastry shops full of sfogliatelle and lemon cakes. The old town's trattorias and friggitorie give you plenty of choice.

La Spezia's food is good but narrower. Farinata, mesciua and the gulf's rope-grown mussels are worth trying, and the Cinque Terre whites go well with them. The choice is that of a small port, though, with little beyond Ligurian home cooking.

Salerno has more history in its own streets. The Norman cathedral, with its bronze doors and the crypt holding Saint Matthew's relics, stands in a medieval warren of stepped lanes, and the Giardino della Minerva recalls Europe's first medical school.

La Spezia is a nineteenth-century naval town of straight avenues and Liberty facades, with no old core to wander. Its best visit is a museum, the Amedeo Lia collection of early Italian painting, along with the odd stele statues in the castle. In both cities the big sights lie outside town.

Salerno has more going on after dark. On weekends and summer nights, young locals fill the squares around Largo Campo and Via dei Mercanti with drinks until late, and Naples is close for a bigger night out.

La Spezia's evening ends with the aperitivo. A spritz on Via del Prione or the waterfront at Lerici is pleasant, but the town goes quiet early, and so do most visitors, who have trails to walk in the morning.

Both have spectacular coast on the doorstep, and there is little to choose between them. La Spezia has the vine-terraced cliffs of the Cinque Terre, with the Sentiero Azzurro and quieter ridge paths, plus Palmaria and the pinewoods of Montemarcello. The Apuan Alps give serious mountain hiking inland.

Salerno has the limestone drama of the Amalfi Coast, mule tracks such as the Path of the Gods across the Lattari mountains, and the wilder Cilento national park to the south. Cilento is the one place in either area where a car really helps, while the Cinque Terre paths are easy to reach by train.

Both are excellent bases, but Salerno's range is wider. Within an hour you can see Greek temples at Paestum, Roman Pompeii and Herculaneum, the Amalfi villages by ferry, Ravello's gardens and the whole of Naples. Each day out feels quite different from the last.

La Spezia's great strength is how close everything is. The Cinque Terre villages and Portovenere are minutes away, and Pisa and Lucca make easy longer trips. Away from the coast, though, there is less variety, and Florence takes a very long day.

Salerno is the easier choice with children. Its long car-free promenade has playgrounds and gelato all the way along. The beaches south of town are shallow and sandy, and the Luci d'Artista light installations give children a reason to visit in winter.

La Spezia is safe and flat, and boat trips round Portovenere go down well with children. The region's real attractions are steep villages, crowded trains and long trail walks, though, which suit teenagers better than small children.

La Spezia is slightly easier. Its centre is small and level, and the coastal train runs through all five Cinque Terre villages, with buses and seasonal ferries covering the rest of the gulf. Its weak point is the summer crush on trains and village platforms.

Salerno's centre is a walkable strip along the sea, but the old town is all steps and the castle needs a bus. Trains to Naples, Pompeii and Paestum are simple, while on the Amalfi side the ferries are the only comfortable option in summer.

Neither city is a shopping destination, but Salerno has more to offer. Corso Vittorio Emanuele is a longer, busier pedestrian street, the old town has some craft workshops, and hand-painted Vietri ceramics are sold just outside the city.

In La Spezia, Via del Prione covers the everyday chains, and the best things to take home are edible: pesto, olive oil and Sciacchetrà. Carrara marble from nearby towns is the one unusual buy.

Salerno is the cheaper stay. It is a working southern city where pizzerias and coffee bars charge local prices, and outside high summer a modest budget goes a long way. The main extra costs are ferries and the entry fees at the big archaeological sites.

La Spezia saves money only compared with the Cinque Terre villages. In summer, rooms cost about what you would pay elsewhere in Western Europe, and trail passes, boat trips and beach clubs mount up over a stay.

Salerno has a proper season. The Teatro Verdi, a gilded copy of Naples' San Carlo, stages opera, concerts and ballet, and in summer the Ravello Festival's cliff-top concerts are within reach for a special evening.

La Spezia's Teatro Civico focuses on plays and touring shows, and summer adds an established jazz festival and concerts in castle courtyards. For opera you have to travel to Genoa or Pisa.

Neither city has a spa tradition. Both rely on hotel spas, with small thermal springs about an hour inland, at Equi Terme in the Lunigiana and Contursi Terme in the Sele valley.

The difference is the kind of quiet on offer. La Spezia finds it out of town, on Palmaria or over a long lunch in Tellaro. Salerno has its palm-lined promenade at sunset, but traffic noise from the port city is never far away.