Naples or Sarajevo?

Naples has the sea close at hand, though the best of it takes some effort to reach. In town you swim from the rocks below the Lungomare and at small lidos in Posillipo. The clear, rocky coves of Procida, Ischia, Capri and the Sorrento peninsula are a boat ride away.

Sarajevo has no sea at all. The Adriatic is about three hours away by road, so swimming means a cold mountain river, Jablanica lake or a pool. If you want days by the sea, add a few days on the Croatian or Montenegrin coast.

Both cities cook with a strong sense of place and offer little foreign food, but Naples has more range. Pizza where it was invented, fried street food, sfogliatelle and babà, pasta with seafood, and markets such as the Pignasecca full of mozzarella and lemons give you something different at every meal.

Sarajevo's food is narrower: ćevapi from the Baščaršija grills, burek sold by weight, slow dishes such as begova čorba, and baklava. It is satisfying comfort food. Its great pleasure is the slow Bosnian coffee from a copper džezva, the opposite of a Neapolitan espresso drunk standing at the bar.

Naples is the deeper cultural stop by some distance. You could easily spend a week on the Greek street plan of the historic centre, the Pompeii finds in the National Archaeological Museum, the Veiled Christ, the catacombs and the Capodimonte gallery.

Sarajevo has fewer sights and they sit closer together, but they carry real weight. A mosque, two cathedrals and a synagogue are a short walk apart, the Latin Bridge marks the assassination of 1914, and the siege is remembered at the Tunnel of Hope and the War Childhood Museum. It gives you a day or two of moving history rather than a week of great collections.

In both cities, nights out happen more in the street than in clubs. Naples has the livelier version. Students pack Piazza Bellini, a smarter crowd fills the Chiaia alleys until late, and in summer the dancing moves out to beach clubs on the coast.

Sarajevo's nights are gentler. Café-bars fill from the afternoon, there are cellar bars and pubs around Ferhadija, and many evenings end over rakija. It is cheap and friendly, but there is less of it.

Naples gives you volcanoes and sea, and Sarajevo gives you mountains. Around the bay you can walk up to the crater rim of Vesuvius, explore the old craters of the Phlegraean Fields at Astroni and Lake Avernus, snorkel or kayak at Gaiola, and spend a long day on the Path of the Gods above the Amalfi Coast. In the city itself there is little green space, and the summer heat makes midday walks hard going.

Sarajevo's outdoors starts at the edge of the Old Town, where a cable car climbs to the forests of Trebević. The Olympic ridges of Jahorina and Bjelašnica are close for hiking in summer and skiing in winter, and the stone village of Lukomir looks down into the Rakitnica canyon. Trails are less clearly marked than on the Italian coast, and in winter the smog can hang in the valley.

Naples is one of the best bases for day trips in Europe. Pompeii and Herculaneum are under an hour away by train, and the palace at Caserta is close. Ferries from Molo Beverello reach Capri, Ischia and Procida, and the Amalfi Coast and Paestum are further on.

Sarajevo has one outstanding trip, to Mostar, by a scenic train through the Neretva gorge. Konjic, Blagaj and Počitelj fit in along the way. Travnik and the bridge at Višegrad are worth the journey too, but the roads are slow and most of these trips need a car or a tour.

Neither city is easy with small children, and Naples has a slight edge, mostly because of what lies around it. Older children enjoy the tunnels underground, the funiculars, a ferry ride and the ruins of Pompeii. Families can also stay in Sorrento or on an island and avoid the scooters, broken pavements and summer heat of the city.

Sarajevo's flat Old Town is gentler to walk, and the cable car, the horse-drawn carriages to Vrelo Bosne and easy winter skiing make good outings. Beyond those, the sights are mostly about war and history, and smoke from the grills and winter smog are hard on young lungs.

Naples' traffic and Sarajevo's single valley corridor make for two very different cities to move around, and Sarajevo is the easier of the two for a visitor. In Naples, Metro Line 1 and its art-gallery stations work well, and so do the four funiculars up to Vomero and Posillipo. But buses crawl through the jams, the Circumvesuviana to Pompeii is crowded and often late, and in the old lanes you share the way with scooters.

Sarajevo is simpler to understand. The Old Town and the Austro-Hungarian centre are flat and walkable, a tram runs along the valley floor to Ilidža, and taxis are cheap. Away from that one line it gets harder, with steep steps up the hillsides, and you will need a taxi or a tour for the ski mountains and the Tunnel of Hope.

Naples is the better place to shop, especially for crafts you will not find elsewhere. There are tailored suits and silk ties from the Chiaia workshops, 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.

Shopping in Sarajevo is almost all in Baščaršija: copper coffee sets hammered out on Kazandžiluk, and kilims and leather slippers around the Bezistan. It is good for a few well-chosen souvenirs, but there is little beyond the bazaar.

Sarajevo is the cheaper city overall, and the difference shows in the everyday basics as well as in the extras. Naples is good value by Western European standards, with pizza and street food costing well below what you pay in the north of Italy, as long as you stay in the city and eat as Neapolitans do. Once the trip turns towards the coast and the islands, your money goes much less far.

Sarajevo is cheaper again. A sit-down dinner with drinks, a slow coffee in the bazaar and a comfortable mid-range hotel in the centre all cost less than in Naples, so you can eat out and stay well without counting every coin. Prices rise only a little in the Old Town and during the summer film festival.

Naples has one of the world's great opera houses, the Teatro di San Carlo, and its season of opera, ballet and concerts is reason enough for music lovers to visit. There is also chamber music in the churches, and Neapolitan song at small shows and from musicians in the trattorias.

Sarajevo's National Theatre and the Philharmonic offer a modest season, and sevdah, heard in traditional restaurants, is the local sound. Its stage life is at its best during the festivals, MESS in autumn and the jazz festival in November. In both cities nearly all plays are in the local language.

Unwinding is a matter of scale in each city: Naples has a whole spa island offshore, while Sarajevo has a spa at the end of the tram line. From Naples the hydrofoil takes about an hour to Ischia, where thermal pools at different temperatures are terraced through gardens above the sea, and many visitors base themselves there. Closer in, there are the springs at Agnano and the quiet cloisters of Santa Chiara, away from the noise of the centre.

Sarajevo's version is smaller and closer. You soak in the sulphur pools at Ilidža, then walk under the trees and along the streams at Vrelo Bosne. In town, an hour over a single Bosnian coffee is its own kind of rest, though the winter smog makes the valley less restful.