Matera or Split?

Split has the sea at its door. Bačvice's shallow sandy bay, where locals play picigin in knee-deep water, is a short walk from the palace, and quieter pebble coves lie under the pines of Marjan. Most of the shore is pebble or concrete, though, and the ferries to Brač and Hvar are how you find longer beaches.

Matera has no sea of its own. The Ionian beaches near Metaponto and Policoro are wide, sandy and gentle for children, but they are a drive of about 45 minutes, so swimming is an occasional outing rather than part of the day.

Both cook close to the land, but Split has more variety and better places to shop for food. Its Dalmatian table runs from grilled fish and black risotto to peka, and the fish market and Pazar show what is in season. The best meals are in the konobas of Varoš rather than inside the palace walls.

Matera's cooking is the plainer peasant food of Basilicata. Think crusty pane di Matera, crapiata, fave e cicoria and crackling peperoni cruschi, with Aglianico to drink. It is satisfying, but there is no market or street-food culture, and the choice rarely goes beyond regional dishes.

The two are well matched, and each is built around one remarkable sight. In Matera that sight is a whole landscape: cave houses and carved churches stacked up the Gravina gorge, Byzantine frescoes in Santa Maria de Idris and the Palombaro Lungo cistern under the piazza. The Sassi are at their best at dusk.

Split's great sight is Diocletian's Palace, a Roman building that is still a neighbourhood people live in, with the cathedral in the emperor's mausoleum and the vaulted halls below. The Meštrović Gallery adds a strong art museum. In either city you can see the essentials in about two days.

In summer, Split has a real night out. Bars fill the stone stairways of the palace, the crowd moves on to the beach bars and clubs around Bačvice, and the evening runs late. Out of season it shrinks to a few bars.

Matera's evenings are a passeggiata along Via del Corso, a long dinner and a drink on a terrace above the lit-up Sassi. It is lovely for couples, but there are no clubs and the town is quiet soon after dinner.

Split has more outdoors on its doorstep, and more variety. You can walk to Marjan's pine woods and cliffs from the old town, and the ridges of Mosor and Kozjak rise behind the city. Rafting and canyoning on the Cetina at Omiš, the waterfalls of Krka and sea kayaking are all within easy reach.

Matera's version is stonier and quieter. A path drops into the Gravina gorge and climbs to the Murgia plateau, past abandoned rock churches and Neolithic sites. The Lucanian Dolomites and the Pollino forests are longer drives.

Both make excellent bases. The difference is how you travel. From Matera you need a car to reach Puglia: Alberobello's trulli, Ostuni and the Valle d'Itria, Castel del Monte and Polignano a Mare, with ghostly Craco and the hill villages of Castelmezzano and Pietrapertosa on the Basilicata side.

From Split, buses and ferries do most of the work. UNESCO-listed Trogir and Šibenik, Roman Salona and Klis Fortress lie along the coast, and Hvar and Brač are a boat ride away, although winter timetables need more planning.

Split is the easier city with children. The centre is compact, Bačvice is shallow enough for paddling, Marjan gives shade and room to run, and the ferry ride to an island is often the highlight of the trip.

Matera works better for older children, who enjoy the caves, the underground cistern and scrambling into the gorge. Small children find it harder going: the Sassi's steep stone steps defeat a pushchair, shade is scarce, and the gentle Ionian beaches need a car.

Split is much simpler for travellers without a car. The palace, the Riva, Varoš and Bačvice are all within a short walk of each other, and the ferry port and the bus and train stations stand together at the harbour.

Matera is easy to walk once you are there, from the flat upper town down the steep stairways into the Sassi. Getting anywhere else is harder. The town is off the national rail network, the narrow-gauge line to Bari is slow and buses are sparse, so a hire car is close to essential.

Neither city is a shopping destination, though Split offers a little more. It has the fashion chains on Marmontova, malls on the outskirts and the Pazar market, where dried figs, honey and local brandies make good gifts.

Matera's shopping is mostly craft workshops in the Sassi selling cuccù whistles, tufa-stone carvings and papier-mâché. Its best souvenirs are edible: peperoni cruschi, local pasta and Aglianico.

Matera is the cheaper of the two. Simple trattorias in the upper town cost well below big-city Italy, and guesthouses in the newer streets are a short walk from the Sassi. Only the cave hotels are expensive.

Split is pricier, especially in July and August, when rooms near the old town, fish sold by weight on the waterfront and island ferries all add up. Come in May, June or late September and the bills fall a good deal.

Split has the fuller calendar. The Croatian National Theatre stages opera and ballet just outside the palace, and the Split Summer Festival performs in the Peristyle courtyard. Klapa singers often perform in the palace's domed vestibule.

Matera has much less. There are conservatory concerts and a summer jazz festival, some staged against the Sassi, and the year's big night is the Festa della Bruna, when a papier-mâché float is ritually torn apart.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and in both a spa means a hotel spa, though Matera's are more unusual, with candlelit cave rooms and pools cut into the rock. Its calm comes from quiet mornings in the Sassi and evenings watching the light fade over the gorge, especially from autumn to spring.

Split's rest takes the form of fjaka, long coffees on the Riva and the pine woods of Marjan. In midsummer the old town is loud late into the night, so people looking for real peace head out to the islands.