Lucca or Salerno?

From Lucca, the beach is a day out. A short train ride takes you to Viareggio and the long, gently shelving Versilia sands, which are mostly lined with rows of umbrellas at beach clubs. The pine-backed dunes of the Lecciona are the wilder choice.

Salerno is on the sea itself, which tips the balance its way, although its grey city beaches near the port are better for a quick dip than a long swim. The real rewards are close by: wide sandy stretches with pine woods towards Paestum, and clear water in the pebbly coves of Vietri, Cetara and the Amalfi Coast.

Salerno eats better. Its cooking is direct and built on the sea and the plain: clams, fried fish, wood-fired pizza, coast lemons and buffalo mozzarella from the farms towards Paestum, with sfogliatelle in the pastry shops and Fiano or Aglianico in the glass.

Lucca's table is plainer and rooted in the hills. Think farro soup, meat-filled tordelli, chestnut flour, cecina and buccellato, with good local oil and wine. It is reliable and fairly priced, but the menus repeat themselves sooner than Salerno's do.

Lucca has much more to see within its own limits. The city is the main attraction: an unbroken ring of Renaissance walls around a medieval grid, with the tiered arcades of San Michele in Foro, the golden mosaic of San Frediano, the cathedral's Volto Santo and the oval piazza built into a Roman amphitheatre.

Salerno's heritage is more compact. The Norman cathedral, with Saint Matthew's crypt, the medicinal terraces of the Giardino della Minerva and the Arechi Castle above the gulf make a rewarding day, but the region's greatest monuments lie outside the city.

Neither is a clubbing city, but Salerno has more going on after dark. On weekends and summer nights, young locals fill the squares around Largo Campo and Via dei Mercanti until late, and the seafront passeggiata keeps the city out of doors.

In Lucca an evening usually means an aperitivo in Piazza San Michele, a long dinner and a walk on the walls, and the streets are calm by midnight. Anyone who wants to dance there has to head to the Versilia coast.

Salerno's surroundings are the more dramatic. Limestone cliffs drop into the sea along the Amalfi Coast, mule tracks such as the Path of the Gods cross the Lattari mountains, and the Cilento adds gorges and wild headlands. Kayaking and boat trips put the sea within reach as well.

Lucca's countryside is softer, with olive groves and villa gardens, cycle paths along the Serchio and birdwatching at Lake Massaciuccoli. Its serious walking is in the marble-scarred Apuan Alps and the Garfagnana woods, about an hour north.

Both are outstanding bases, and the difference is in the kind of day out. From Lucca, the trips lean towards the Renaissance and the Middle Ages: Pisa's Campo dei Miracoli, Florence, Pistoia, the formal gardens of Villa Reale di Marlia and the sculptors' studios of Pietrasanta.

From Salerno, the trips lean towards the ancient world and the coast. The Greek temples of Paestum are half an hour south, and Pompeii is a similar distance the other way, with Herculaneum and Naples beyond it. Ferries also cross the gulf to Amalfi and Positano, with Ravello above.

Families will find these two much alike, and the difference is in the setting. Lucca is flat and quiet, so riding the walls on a family quadricycle, climbing the tree-topped Torre Guinigi and visiting the Pinocchio Park at Collodi fill the days easily.

Salerno offers a long car-free seafront with playgrounds and shallow sandy beaches to the south. Its old town is all steps, though, and the winding Amalfi roads can be hard on carsick children.

Lucca is the easier place to move about. Inside the walls it is flat and mostly closed to traffic, and bikes are how people get around. Trains to Pisa and Florence leave from just outside the southern gate. Reaching the villas and hill villages, however, really calls for a car.

Salerno's centre is a walkable strip from the station to the old town, with the castle a bus ride up the hill. Getting along the coast takes more planning: ferries work well in the warmer months, while the coastal buses and roads are slow and crowded in summer.

Shopping is modest in both, with no luxury depth in either. In Lucca, the pleasure is the winding Via Fillungo with its old Liberty shopfronts and the monthly antiques market around the cathedral. In Salerno you get chain stores along Corso Vittorio Emanuele, and the more distinctive buys come from nearby: Vietri's painted majolica, limoncello and Cetara's colatura.

Salerno is the cheaper stay. Its pizzerias, bakeries and trains charge what locals pay, and its rooms cost far less than in the cliff villages along the coast. Costs rise in summer with ferries, lido sunbeds and the entry fees at the big archaeological sites.

Lucca is cheaper than Florence, but rooms are its weak point. There are few hotels inside the walls and they fill up in summer, so staying just outside often gives better value.

Lucca has the stronger musical life, almost all of it thanks to Puccini, who was born here. Recitals of his arias in a central church run for most of the year, the Teatro del Giglio has its own season, and summer brings open-air opera by the lake at Torre del Lago as well as big concerts in Piazza Napoleone.

Salerno's gilded Teatro Verdi stages a respectable season of opera and ballet, and the cliff-top concerts of the Ravello Festival make a memorable summer evening. Outside those, Naples is where you go for more.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, but Lucca sits much closer to one. Montecatini's belle époque spas are half an hour away by train, there are warm cave pools at Monsummano and steam grottoes at Bagni di Lucca, and the traffic-free streets are restful in themselves.

In Salerno, a spa means a hotel spa or a drive of about an hour to the sulphur pools at Contursi Terme. The seafront at sunset is lovely, but the noise of the port and its roads makes the city less of a retreat.