Lecce or Thessaloniki?

Lecce has the beaches, and they easily fit into a city stay. The sand right by town is ordinary, but the pale coves and sea stacks of Torre dell'Orso are about half an hour away. The long, very clear Ionian beaches at Porto Cesareo and Punta Prosciutto take a little longer. You can swim in the morning and be back in the old town by evening.

Thessaloniki faces the sea, but nobody swims along its waterfront, and the nearby beaches at Perea are unremarkable. Halkidiki's coves are excellent, but Kassandra is about an hour's drive away, so most people treat them as a separate day out or a place to move on to.

Lecce cooks one cuisine and cooks it well: pasticciotto and almond-milk iced coffee in the morning, ciceri e tria and orecchiette with turnip tops in the osterie, and dark Negroamaro with dinner. It is distinctive and inexpensive, but after a few days there is little else to try.

Thessaloniki gives you far more range. Ottoman, Sephardic and Anatolian refugee influences mix in its kebabs, its many ways with peppers and aubergines, and the meze that arrives with tsipouro at the ouzeri. Add the Kapani and Modiano markets, Naoussa wines and the waterfront cafés, and a week of eating here never repeats itself.

Both are rewarding, but in different ways. In Lecce the whole old town is the sight: honey-coloured limestone carved into one of Italy's most complete Baroque townscapes, from Santa Croce to the enclosed Piazza del Duomo at dusk, with half a Roman amphitheatre sunk below Piazza Sant'Oronzo. Its museums are modest.

Thessaloniki has the stronger monuments and museums, but they stand apart in a largely modern city. You get UNESCO-listed churches such as the Rotunda and Agios Dimitrios, the Arch of Galerius, Macedonian gold in the Archaeological Museum and the Museum of Byzantine Culture, with the Ottoman lanes of Ano Poli above.

Thessaloniki is the place for a night out. The large student population and the Greek habit of going out late keep the bars of Ladadika, the louder DJ bars around Valaoritou and the outdoor tables of the Bit Bazaar full until well past three, even on weeknights. In summer the crowds move to the waterfront and to big open-air clubs.

Lecce's evenings are gentler: a passeggiata, an aperitivo on the piazza, then wine bars in the old town's lanes. If you want to dance in summer, you have to drive to the beach clubs around Gallipoli.

Thessaloniki has the bigger landscapes. The Seich Sou pine forest starts right behind Ano Poli. Mount Olympus, with the Enipeas gorge and hut-to-hut routes from Litochoro, is about an hour and a half away, and in winter there is skiing at Kaimaktsalan and Seli.

Lecce's outdoors is almost all coast, because the plain of olive groves and red earth is flat. What it does have is the clifftop paths and sea caves between Roca Vecchia and Santa Maria di Leuca, birdwatching at Le Cesine, and good snorkelling and kayaking. That suits a vacation spent on the water better than one spent on the mountains.

Both make excellent bases, and in both a car makes the trips much easier. From Lecce the trips are about towns and stone: walled Otranto and its cathedral mosaic, Gallipoli's island old town, Galatina's frescoes, then white Ostuni and the trulli of Alberobello further north.

From Thessaloniki the theme is ancient Macedonia. You can visit the royal tombs at Vergina, Alexander's birthplace at Pella and the sanctuary at Dion below Olympus, then go further afield to the waterfalls of Edessa or take a boat along the Mount Athos coast.

Neither city has much built for children, so families pick by the kind of day they want. Lecce's old town is largely free of traffic and the shallow sand at Porto Cesareo suits toddlers, but there is no zoo or aquarium of note.

Thessaloniki has the Noesis science centre, a small zoo and a seafront promenade with playgrounds. Against that, it has heavy traffic, cluttered pavements and steep Ano Poli, and many families stay in Halkidiki and visit the city on a day out.

Thessaloniki is easier to get around overall. The main sights lie along a flat strip near the waterfront, a metro line runs under the centre, buses cover the rest and taxis are plentiful and inexpensive for the climb to Ano Poli.

Lecce's centre is smaller and lovely to walk, but outside it things get harder. The Salento's local trains are slow, the beach buses run only in summer, and for the coast and the villages most visitors end up hiring a car.

Thessaloniki has more real shopping: Greek and international chains along Tsimiski, malls on the edge of the city, and the Kapani and Modiano markets for spices, loukoumi and tsipouro to take home.

Lecce has the better crafts but very little else. Papier-mâché saints from the old-town cartapesta workshops, small limestone carvings and Grottaglie ceramics are worth buying. Beyond those and the olive oil, you'll mostly find souvenirs.

Both are kind to the budget, but in Lecce the calendar sets the price. From autumn to early summer a room in a converted palazzo and a day of pasticciotto, rustico and an osteria dinner with Negroamaro cost little for Italy. In August Italians on their own vacation fill the Salento, so rooms and a sunbed at a beach club climb steeply. The car you need for the coast is an extra in every season.

Thessaloniki is cheaper, and its prices change less through the year. Prices follow what students and local families pay, so an ouzeri dinner with tsipouro or a late round in Ladadika costs less than a similar evening in Lecce. Hotels stay reasonable except when a big event or the city's large trade fair fills them in autumn. The two share one extra cost: hiring a car for Vergina or Halkidiki.

Thessaloniki has more to offer all year. The State Orchestra plays at the waterfront Concert Hall and the National Theatre of Northern Greece runs regular seasons, though nearly all theatre is in Greek. The best of it for visitors is rebetiko and laika played late in the tavernas.

Lecce's theatres, the Politeama Greco and the Paisiello, have only a modest programme. Its real draw is pizzica, the tambourine dance played at village festivals all summer, which peaks with the Notte della Taranta in Melpignano. Outside summer, there is little on.

Lecce is better for a restful stay. The sulphur springs of Santa Cesarea Terme flow into grottoes and pools on the sea cliffs, under an hour away, and fortified masserie on the plain have been turned into quiet spa retreats.

Thessaloniki's Bey Hamam is a monument, not a working bath, and Lagadas has only simple spring-fed pools. The city relaxes in its own way instead, with long hours over iced coffee by the sea and a slow evening walk along the promenade.