Milan or Sorrento?

Sorrento is the place to swim. Its lidos stand on piers over clear, deep water at Marina Piccola and Marina Grande, a lift ride below the town, and boats run to pebble coves on Capri and the Amalfi side. The catch is that space is tight in high summer and the shore is mostly paid lidos.

Milan is landlocked. The nearest thing to a beach in the city is the artificial Idroscalo basin, and the real swimming is at the pebbly lidos of Lake Como or Maggiore, an hour away by train. Treat it as an occasional summer outing.

Milan gives you more range. On top of its butter-rich northern dishes such as saffron risotto, ossobuco and cotoletta, it serves good cooking from every Italian region and has serious fine dining. The aperitivo hour in Brera, Isola and along the Navigli is a ritual of its own.

Sorrento is narrower but very much rooted in its place: gnocchi alla sorrentina, fish cooked all'acqua pazza, local mozzarella and lemons in everything. Skip the tourist menus around Piazza Tasso and eat in the back-lane trattorias, at Marina Grande or up in the hill villages.

Milan has far more to see, and of a far higher rank. The marble Duomo and its rooftop, the Last Supper, Brera's paintings and Michelangelo's Rondanini Pietà could fill several days, although the city between these clusters is mostly modern.

Sorrento's own sights fit into a gentle day or two: the Roman street grid, the cloister of San Francesco, the Museo Correale and the ravine of the Vallone dei Mulini. The area's famous names, from Pompeii to Naples, are trips out of town.

Milan offers a real night out, from aperitivo along the Navigli towpaths to dressy clubs around Corso Como and warehouse nights on the city's edge. Porta Venezia is the centre of its gay scene. The tone is stylish rather than wild, and it goes quiet in August.

Sorrento's evenings are a stroll on Corso Italia, a drink on a terrace over the bay, and maybe a piano bar playing Neapolitan songs. Because the last trains and ferries leave early, a late night in Naples or on Capri means staying over.

Sorrento has the landscape right outside the door. Trails lead through olive and lemon terraces to Punta Campanella and the protected bay of Ieranto, the Path of the Gods and the crater of Vesuvius are close, and you can kayak or take a boat around the grottoes of Capri.

Milan sits on a flat, often hazy plain, with Parco Sempione and the canal towpaths for cycling out into the rice fields. Its good outdoors starts an hour north, with the lakes and the Grigne ridges for hiking and via ferrata, and ski resorts in winter are a full day out.

Both are excellent bases, but the trips are of different kinds. From Milan, high-speed and regional trains take you to whole cities and art towns: Verona's arena, Turin's palaces, Bergamo's upper town, Mantua, Cremona and Parma, as well as Lake Como's villages and Lugano across the border.

From Sorrento, the trips are about ancient sites, islands and coast. The old Circumvesuviana line reaches Pompeii and Herculaneum, ferries go to Capri, and summer boats run to Positano and Amalfi. Because the coast road is slow, the sea is often the better way to travel.

Milan is the easier choice with children. The science and technology museum, with its submarine and hands-on labs, covers rainy days, Parco Sempione has playgrounds, and Leolandia and Gardaland are within reach for a day out. The city's big sights, however, are mostly for adults.

Sorrento welcomes children warmly, and boat trips and Pompeii go down well, but there is little made for them. The swimming is into deep water off piers and rocks, and steep lanes without pavements make a hotel with a pool the usual answer.

Both centres are flat and walkable, but Milan is far better connected. Five easy metro lines with contactless gates, a dense tram network and direct trains to the lakes cover almost every journey, and the only real drawback is the long trip in from Malpensa.

In Sorrento, getting beyond the town is the hard part. The Circumvesuviana is cheap but crowded and often late, and the Amalfi buses crawl round the hairpins in summer, so ferries are often the most comfortable choice. Hotels in the hills rely on shuttles or taxis.

Milan is one of the world's fashion capitals. The great Italian houses have their flagships in the Quadrilatero, the Galleria and La Rinascente are long-standing institutions, and design showrooms and Corso Buenos Aires add depth at other levels.

Sorrento's shopping is small and local: intarsia boxes and trays, sandals made to measure while you wait, linen, cameos and a great deal of limoncello. Anyone after fashion goes to Naples or Capri.

Neither is a cheap stay, though the costs work differently. In Milan the hotels are the problem, especially during trade fairs and fashion weeks, and you save by filling up at aperitivo, eating office-lunch set menus and staying near a metro stop outside the centre.

Sorrento charges resort prices in summer for sea-view rooms, sunbeds and private boats. Its savings come from cheap trains and buses, trattorias away from the main squares, and much lower hotel rates in spring and late autumn.

Milan is in a different class. La Scala's opera and ballet season opens each December, gallery seats put it within reach, and the Piccolo Teatro, the symphony orchestra at the Auditorium and summer concerts at San Siro widen the choice.

Sorrento's stage is mostly Neapolitan song and tarantella shows for visitors, plus chamber concerts in the cloister of San Francesco in summer. For opera you need to go to the San Carlo in Naples.

Sorrento is slightly more restful because the place itself slows you down. There are cliff-top hotel spas and terraces over the bay, villa gardens among the lemon groves, and the thermal gardens of Ischia are a ferry ride away, though July and August are crowded and noisy.

Milan actually has a thermal spa complex within the city, and the 1930s pools of the Bagni Misteriosi in summer, but it is a busy, work-minded place. Most visitors go to the lakes when they want real calm.