Lecce or Verona?

Lecce is much the better choice for swimming. Its own nearby sands are plain, but within about 40 minutes you reach two different seas: the cliffs, coves and sea stacks of the Adriatic at Torre dell'Orso, and the long, shallow, clear beaches of the Ionian at Porto Cesareo and Punta Prosciutto. The sea stays warm enough to swim from June into October.

Verona's swimming is in Lake Garda, about half an hour away. The water is calm and clean, but you lie on lawns, small pebble beaches or Sirmione's limestone shelves, and they fill up on summer weekends. It makes a pleasant afternoon out, but you would not choose Verona for the water.

The two eat about equally well, in very different ways. Lecce's day is set by its pastries: a pasticciotto and iced almond coffee in the morning, a rustico mid-morning, then poor-kitchen dishes such as ciceri e tria and fava purée with chicory, all cheap in the old-town osterie.

Verona's cooking belongs to the northern plain: Amarone risotto, bigoli with duck, and bollito with peppery pearà. Its wine country is the stronger of the two, with Valpolicella, Amarone and Soave on the doorstep, served by the glass with snacks at a counter. Neither city has much range beyond its own region, and Verona's tourist restaurants around the Arena need avoiding.

Verona has more to see, and it spans more centuries. Its Arena is one of the best-preserved Roman amphitheatres anywhere, still in use, and around it stand the della Scala squares and tombs, the Romanesque San Zeno and Castelvecchio's art collection in Carlo Scarpa's setting.

Lecce has only half of its Roman amphitheatre uncovered, sunk below Piazza Sant'Oronzo. Its strength is a single style done completely: carved Baroque facades on Santa Croce and the enclosed Piazza del Duomo, best seen by walking at dusk. The museums are modest, so it rewards strolling more than sightseeing.

Neither city is a reason to go out late, and both evenings are built around the aperitivo on the piazza. The difference is where the late night goes. In Lecce it moves out of town in summer, to beach clubs and open-air discos near Gallipoli, which means someone has to drive. Verona's stays in the centre, in the student wine bars of Veronetta and in the opera crowd spilling out of the Arena near midnight.

Verona has more varied country around it. The vineyard hills of Valpolicella begin just north of town, the Adige cycle route runs up the valley, and around Garda, Monte Baldo offers ridge walks and paragliding, with reliable wind for sailing at the lake's northern end. The Lessinia plateau adds beech woods and gorges.

Lecce's hinterland is flat olive country, good only for easy cycling. Its outdoors is the coast: clifftop paths from Roca Vecchia towards Leuca, boat trips into sea caves, wetlands at Le Cesine and Alimini, and better snorkelling and diving than anything near Verona.

Verona is one of the best bases in Italy for day trips, and its railway does most of the work. Venice, Vicenza, Padua and Mantua are each about an hour away or less, and Garda's lakeside towns and the Valpolicella and Soave wine country are closer still.

Lecce has fine trips of its own: Otranto's cathedral mosaic, Gallipoli on its island, white Ostuni and the trulli of Alberobello further north. But they are smaller towns spread over a wide area, and most are far easier by car than by the slow local trains.

Verona has much more for children, though most of it is outside the city. Gardaland, the Garda water parks and the drive-through safari at Parco Natura Viva are all about half an hour away, and the Arena itself tends to capture young imaginations.

Lecce gives families a relaxed, traffic-free old town, piazzas full of children in the evening and gently shelving sand around Porto Cesareo that is ideal for toddlers. Beyond the beach there is little aimed at them, and the summer heat means planning every day around a long midday rest.

Both centres are flat and easy to cover on foot, so the difference lies beyond them. From Verona, frequent fast trains reach Venice, Milan and Peschiera on Garda, so you can see a great deal without a car, and you only need one for the Valpolicella villages and the Lessinia.

In Lecce, the trains north to Brindisi and Bari are good, but the local Salento railways are slow and sparse and the beach buses run only in summer. Most visitors end up hiring a car, and both old towns restrict driving inside the walls.

Verona is the better place to shop, though neither is a destination for it. Via Mazzini's marble pavement is lined with Italian fashion labels, and the side streets add jewellers and shoe shops, but serious shoppers still go to Milan.

In Lecce it is mostly about crafts: cartapesta saints and nativity figures from old-town workshops, small carvings in local stone and Grottaglie ceramics. In both cities the best things to take home are edible, Amarone and pandoro from Verona, olive oil and taralli from Lecce.

Lecce is the cheaper of the two, and the gap shows most at the table and in the room. Eating out costs less in Lecce. Verona's plain osterie are fair, but the tables around the Arena charge for the view. Outside high summer, a room in Lecce's old town costs less than a central hotel in Verona.

The two cities also get expensive at different times and for different reasons. In Lecce the price is seasonal: it jumps in August when the whole coast fills up, and almost every trip adds a hire car, so May, June and September give the best value. In Verona the cost is the bed all year, highest on summer opera nights and trade-fair dates. Fast trains and a walkable centre mean you rarely need a car, and staying across the river or near the station brings the bill down.

Verona is far ahead here. Grand opera on the stone tiers of the Arena, played most summer evenings until close to midnight, is one of Europe's great nights out. The Roman theatre's summer festival of Shakespeare, dance and jazz and the Teatro Filarmonico's winter season fill the rest of the year.

Lecce's theatres, the Politeama Greco and the Paisiello, run a small season. What it has that Verona does not is pizzica, the Salento's fast tambourine dance, heard at village festivals all summer and at its biggest at the Notte della Taranta in Melpignano in August.

For a restful trip the two are about level, and both have thermal water within reach rather than in town. Near Lecce, the sulphur springs of Santa Cesarea Terme fill grottoes and pools on cliffs above the sea, and old fortified masserie on the plain now serve as quiet spa retreats. Near Verona, the springs are lakeside: Sirmione's long-established spa, the spring-fed thermal lake near Lazise and the Roman-era waters at Caldiero.