Matera or Syracuse, Sicily?

Beach life is the clearest difference between the two. Matera is inland, and the sandy, pine-backed beaches at Metaponto and Policoro are about 45 minutes away by car. The water there is calm and shallow, but it makes a day out rather than part of the routine, and most visitors never swim.

In Syracuse, summer revolves around the sea. People swim off wooden platforms right below Ortigia, families use the busy local beaches at Arenella and Fontane Bianche, and the undeveloped pale sand of Vendicari is a short drive south.

Matera's cooking is the plain peasant food of Basilicata: the horn-shaped durum loaf, crapiata soup, cavatelli and dried peppers fried until crisp, with Aglianico to drink. It's honest food, but the choice is narrow and there's no market or street food to explore.

Syracuse has more to eat and more ways to eat it. The morning market on Ortigia sells swordfish, sea urchins and sandwiches made to order. Pasta comes with sardines or anchovies and capers, and summer breakfasts are almond granita with a brioche. The seafood and pastry are what set it apart.

Syracuse has the deeper and broader set of sights. The cathedral is built around the columns of a Greek temple, and the Neapolis park holds a rock-cut theatre and the Ear of Dionysius. The Paolo Orsi museum and a Caravaggio make up the rest, and together they need two or three days.

Matera's appeal is narrower but singular: a whole town of cave homes and rock churches with faded frescoes, lived in until the 1950s. Add the cistern under the main square and Carlo Levi's panorama of Lucanian life. It's less to see, but it's a kind of place you won't find elsewhere.

Neither city is for a big night out, but Syracuse has more going on. On summer weekends Ortigia's lanes and sea walls stay busy past midnight, and beach clubs on the southern coast add some dancing in July and August. Matera's evenings are a stroll along Via del Corso and a glass of wine overlooking the lit-up Sassi, and the town falls quiet soon after dinner outside the warm months.

Matera's best walk starts from town. A path drops from Sasso Caveoso into the Gravina gorge and climbs to the Murgia plateau, past abandoned rock churches, with kestrels in the cliffs. The Lucanian Dolomites and Pollino are full-day drives.

Syracuse offers more variety. You can swim in the green pools at the bottom of Cavagrande gorge, watch flamingos on the Vendicari lagoons, snorkel in the Plemmirio marine reserve, take a boat up the papyrus-lined Ciane, or spend a day on Etna. It also adds water to the hill walking that Matera offers.

Both make excellent bases, and both need a car. From Matera you can cross into Puglia for the trulli of Alberobello, Ostuni and the Valle d'Itria, Castel del Monte and Polignano a Mare. Nearer home are the ghost town of Craco and the mountain villages of Castelmezzano and Pietrapertosa.

Syracuse has the richer choice within easy reach. Noto, Modica, Ragusa Ibla and Scicli make up the UNESCO baroque group, and Catania and Taormina lie to the north. The mosaics at Piazza Armerina reward the longer drive.

Neither city has anything built for children, and Matera feels it more. Older children tend to love the furnished cave houses, the walk through the cistern under the main piazza and the climb down into the gorge, but younger ones tire quickly, and on summer afternoons the bare stone offers little shade. A short stay works best, with a car for a day on the sandy Ionian shore.

Syracuse has no zoo, aquarium or theme park either, and the Greek ruins mean little to a small child. What makes it easier is the shape of the day: sightseeing early and late, the hot afternoon by the sea, and evenings in Ortigia's car-free lanes with a granita or gelato as the reward. Children are welcome at the table in both cities, but Syracuse's relaxed trattorias, arancini and market sandwiches make eating out with them especially easy.

They are much alike: a walkable core and a car for everything beyond it. What differs is the terrain. Ortigia is flat and you can cross it in fifteen minutes, while Matera's Sassi are reached by steep stairways that tire the legs. For longer journeys, Syracuse at least has regional trains and buses to Noto and Catania, whereas Matera sits off the national rail network, with only a slow narrow-gauge line to Bari.

Neither is a shopping destination, though Ortigia's lanes have more worth buying. Look for hand-painted Sicilian ceramics, linen, coral jewellery and papyrus paintings, plus capers, almonds and pistachio from the market. Matera's crafts are on a smaller scale: the painted cuccù whistle, tufa-stone models of the Sassi and papier-mâché. Its dried peppers and bottles of Aglianico are the best things to take home.

Costs are much the same, and in both cities they follow the same pattern: food is cheap and the most sought-after rooms are not. In Matera the premium is for cave hotels in the Sassi, and a guesthouse in the upper town saves a good deal. In Syracuse it's Ortigia in high summer, so a mainland room or a shoulder-season visit is the way to save. In both, budget for a hire car if you want to see the region.

Syracuse has one great event: each late spring and early summer, Greek tragedies and comedies are staged in the ancient theatre, a tradition running since 1914. The rest of the year, Ortigia's family-run puppet theatres keep the Charlemagne legends alive.

Matera's calendar is thinner: conservatory concerts, a summer jazz festival among the Sassi, and the Festa della Bruna, when a papier-mâché float is torn apart at the end of the procession.

Neither has thermal baths, and both offer calm through their pace rather than treatments. The kind of calm differs. Matera's distinctive touch is the hotel spa set in candlelit cave rooms with pools cut into the rock, and quiet mornings in the Sassi. Syracuse relaxes you by the water, with evening walks on the sea walls, harbour sunsets and an unhurried swim, best outside the crowded heat of August.