Naples or Portofino?

Neither has a proper town beach, but Portofino has the better swimming on its doorstep. The water off the rocks towards the lighthouse is deep and clear, Paraggi is a sheltered bay a short walk away, and the pebble cove at San Fruttuoso is a boat ride round the point. All of these spots are small, though, and they fill up in summer.

In Naples you swim off the rocks below the Lungomare or at the small lidos in Posillipo, and the water near the port is not always clean. The clear coves are on Procida, Ischia and Capri, so a good swim becomes a day out by ferry.

Naples is one of Italy's great places to eat. You get soft Neapolitan pizza in loud rooms with shared tables, fried street food, sfogliatelle and babà, and the Pignasecca and Porta Nolana markets full of buffalo mozzarella and fish. Eating well there needs neither planning nor much money.

Portofino serves Ligurian food such as trofie with pesto, Recco's cheese focaccia and fritto misto on terraces above the harbour. But you pay for the view of the yachts, and the cooking is rarely more than solid. Keen eaters go to Camogli or the trattorie up in the hills.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Naples has a street grid laid out by the Greeks and packed with Gothic and Baroque churches. It also has the National Archaeological Museum with the finds from Pompeii, the Veiled Christ in the Cappella Sansevero, and a whole city of tunnels and catacombs underneath. That is enough for a week.

In Portofino the sight is the harbour itself. Castello Brown, the church of San Giorgio and the abbey at San Fruttuoso add a day at most, and there are no real museums.

Naples has proper nights out, even though they happen mostly in the street. Students drink on the steps around Piazza Bellini, and a smarter crowd fills the alleys of Chiaia until well past midnight. Serious clubs are few.

Portofino more or less ends the evening after aperitivo and dinner on the harbour. A few dressy bars face the yachts in summer, and outside July and August the village goes quiet early. For anything later you would go to Rapallo or Genoa.

Both are excellent outdoors, but the landscapes are very different. Around Naples it is volcanoes: the crater rim of Vesuvius, the old craters of the Phlegraean Fields with Astroni's oak woods and Lake Avernus, and the Path of the Gods above the Amalfi Coast for a long day.

In Portofino the nature starts at your door. The protected headland has cliff trails to San Fruttuoso and Camogli, some sections with chains. The marine reserve offshore offers diving among red coral walls and down to the bronze Christ of the Abyss.

Naples has the stronger list by some way. Pompeii and Herculaneum are each under an hour away on the Circumvesuviana, with the quieter Roman villas at Oplontis and Stabiae on the same line, and the Bourbon palace at Caserta is a short train ride inland. Ferries from Molo Beverello reach Capri, Ischia and Procida, and Sorrento is the gateway to Positano, Amalfi and Ravello.

Portofino's outings are gentler and mostly along the coast. You can reach Camogli and Santa Margherita by boat, Sestri Levante's two bays by train, Genoa's palaces and medieval lanes in under an hour, and the Cinque Terre by summer ferry. They make lovely days out, but none of them matches walking the streets of a buried Roman town.

Neither is easy with small children, but Naples has more to keep them busy. There are the zoo and Edenlandia in Fuorigrotta and the science museum at Bagnoli, and older children enjoy the tunnels, the funiculars and Pompeii. The downside is scooters, broken pavements and crowded summers.

Portofino is calm and safe, but it has no playgrounds and its paths are steep steps that don't work with a pushchair. The only sand nearby is at Paraggi, mostly in paid beach clubs. Families visiting either place often stay somewhere easier nearby, such as Sorrento or Rapallo.

Getting around is similar in both, in that you walk and never need a car, but the problems are different. Naples is a big city with a metro line, four funiculars up to Vomero and Posillipo, slow buses and a crowded old train round the bay, and you share every lane with scooters.

Portofino takes a few minutes to cross on foot. The hard part is getting there: there is one narrow road from Santa Margherita, very little parking and buses that are packed in summer. From spring to autumn the ferry is the pleasant way in.

Naples has more to buy, and much of it you won't find anywhere else. There are tailored suits and silk ties from workshops in Chiaia, nativity figures on Via San Gregorio Armeno, and coral and cameos from Torre del Greco. Via Toledo and the Galleria Umberto I cover the high street.

Portofino fits big fashion and jewellery houses and resort wear into a few lanes behind the harbour, and you can see it all in under an hour. For markets or a longer browse, people go to Chiavari or Genoa.

Naples is far cheaper than Portofino, even once you add the trips out. Pizza, street food, coffee standing at the bar and a plain trattoria lunch all cost little, the metro and funiculars are cheap, and the historic centre has plenty of modest B&Bs. The bigger costs come when you leave the city: ferries to Capri, a night on the Amalfi Coast and the entry fees at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Those are extras on a trip that is cheap at its base.

Portofino is one of the most expensive places to stay in Italy, and it is the village itself that costs the most. Its few hotels are luxury properties above the harbour, and you pay a heavy premium for the setting at a table on the piazzetta, a lounger at Paraggi, boat hire and parking. The headland trails and the local bus are about the only cheap things, so many visitors base themselves in Rapallo or Camogli and come over for the day.

Naples has the Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest opera house in Europe still in use, with a full season of opera, ballet and concerts. There is also chamber music in the churches of the old centre, and Neapolitan song at small shows and in the trattorias.

Portofino has almost nothing beyond the occasional summer concert in the piazzetta or at the castle. For an evening of opera you have to go into Genoa to the Teatro Carlo Felice.

Neither is a natural place to unwind, for different reasons. Naples is loud, but its volcanic ground produces real thermal water. There is a spa at Agnano on the edge of the city, and Ischia, an hour away by hydrofoil, is a spa island with thermal pools terraced through gardens.

Portofino has no bathing tradition, and its spas belong to the luxury hotels. What it offers instead is quiet: early mornings, shaded paths and the months either side of summer, once the tour boats have gone.