Matera or Positano?

From Matera the sea is a day out. The Ionian shore at Metaponto and Policoro is about 45 minutes by car, with wide sandy beaches backed by pine woods and shallow, calm water. Without a car you are unlikely to swim at all.

In Positano the beach is part of every day. Spiaggia Grande sits below the town, Fornillo is a cliff path away, and boats leave from the shore for coves and Capri. The water is clearer and deeper than on the Ionian coast. The shore is coarse grey sand and pebble, though, and it shelves quickly, so the flat sandy shallows near Matera are friendlier for small children.

Matera gives you more to explore at the table. The cooking is rooted in Basilicata: crusty pane di Matera, crapiata soup, fave e cicoria, hand-made cavatelli, roast lamb and peperoni cruschi fried until crisp, with Aglianico del Vulture to drink. The upper town around Via Ridola often cooks better than the cave restaurants in the Sassi.

Positano's menus are built on the sea and the lemon: clams, grilled fish, scialatielli and limoncello, served on terraces where the view is part of the bill. It is a lovely way to have lunch, but the dishes repeat from place to place and many kitchens close between November and Easter. Neither town has street food or a market to browse.

This is where the two differ most. Matera's Sassi are among the oldest inhabited places in Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are cave houses furnished as families lived in them until the 1950s, rock churches such as Santa Maria de Idris with Byzantine frescoes, the cathedral on the Civita and the walk-through cistern under the main piazza. Museo Ridola, Palazzo Lanfranchi and MUSMA add several more hours.

In Positano, the town itself is the sight. The majolica dome of Santa Maria Assunta and the painted Roman villa buried beneath it are the high points, and an afternoon covers them both.

Neither town is for a big night out, and they are quiet in different ways. Matera's evening is the passeggiata along Via del Corso, then a cave wine bar or a terrace above the lit-up Sassi, with a small student crowd keeping a few places open late in summer.

Positano is more about aperitivo with a view of the sea. It does have one thing Matera lacks: a club in a cave at the end of Spiaggia Grande where a dressed-up crowd dances late. Once the season ends, even that goes quiet.

Matera's landscape is stony and quiet. A path drops from Sasso Caveoso into the Gravina gorge and climbs to Murgia Timone, past abandoned rock churches and Neolithic village sites, with kestrels on the cliffs. The Lucanian Dolomites and Pollino are longer drives.

Positano has the bigger scenery. The Path of the Gods runs high above the sea to Nocelle, trails climb through chestnut woods to ridges over 1,000m, and kayaks follow the cliffs to grottoes and the Li Galli islets. In both places summer heat drives walkers out early.

Matera is a good base if you have a car. Altamura and Gravina in Puglia are close by. Within about an hour you reach the trulli of Alberobello, the white towns of the Valle d'Itria, Castel del Monte and Polignano a Mare on its cliffs, and on the Basilicata side there are the ghost town of Craco and the Greek temple at Metaponto. The range is wide, but for almost all of these trips you have to drive yourself.

Positano has the stronger list, and more of it is close at hand. Ferries from the beach run to Amalfi and Ravello, and Capri is about half an hour by boat. Pompeii and Herculaneum are about an hour and a half away via Sorrento and the local train, and Paestum's temples are a little further. Much of this needs no car. The drawback is timing: most boats stop running in winter, and the coast road is slow in summer traffic.

Both are hard work with small children. Steep stone steps everywhere rule out pushchairs in each, and neither has anything built for children. In Matera, older children tend to love the cave houses, the underground cistern and scrambling into the gorge, and the shallow sandy Ionian beaches suit toddlers, if you have a car.

Positano offers less to explore on land. In return it has the sea right below the town and boat trips that older children enjoy, though the pebbly beaches drop off quickly.

Matera is the easier town to move around, though only on foot. The upper town is flat, and only the descent into the Sassi tests the legs. Reaching anywhere else is slow, with a narrow-gauge train to Bari and sparse buses, so a hire car does the real work.

In Positano almost every walk means hundreds of steps. A car is more burden than help on the single narrow road, and the crowded coastal buses crawl in summer. Ferries are the best link to nearby towns, but mainly in season.

Positano gives you a reason to shop: the lanes down to the beach are full of moda Positano, loose white linen and bright resort prints, and sandal makers will cut a pair to fit while you wait. It is one look, though, with nothing beyond it.

Matera's shopping is souvenirs: painted cuccù whistles, tufa carvings of the Sassi and ceramics, with ordinary high-street shops on Via del Corso. The things most worth carrying home are dried peppers, local pasta and Aglianico.

Matera is far kinder to the wallet. Trattorias in the upper town cost less than in Italy's big cities, guesthouses in the newer town are cheap and a short walk from the Sassi, and the gorge and old districts are free to wander. Only the cave hotels charge a premium.

Positano is among the dearest places to stay in Italy. Sea-view rooms, beach loungers, terrace lunches and boat transfers all cost a lot. Sleeping in Praiano or Sorrento and coming in by ferry, or going in May or October, makes a real difference.

Neither town has much of a stage, and both depend on summer. Matera has its own events: conservatory concerts, a summer jazz festival set against the Sassi, and the Festa della Bruna, when the papier-mâché float is torn apart.

Positano offers little beyond occasional concerts in churches and squares, but Ravello's classical festival on its terrace above the sea is an evening's trip away, and Naples is there for opera.

For a restful stay Positano has the edge, though Matera offers a quieter kind of calm. Neither town has a bathing tradition, so in both a spa means a hotel spa. Matera's are the stranger of the two: candlelit cave rooms with pools carved into the tufa, enclosed and hushed, with no view at all. Beyond them, rest in Matera is about pace. It is a small inland town, and an early walk through the empty Sassi relaxes you more than any treatment.

Positano has more upscale hotels with spas to choose from, and here the view does the relaxing: a lounger above the sea, the light on the water and a lunch that runs into the afternoon. The cost is company. In high summer the beaches and lanes are full and loud, and with stairs everywhere even a short walk takes effort, so the calm tends to stay inside the hotel.