Naples or Split?

Split has the better swimming in town. A short walk from the palace brings you to Bačvice, a shallow sandy bay where locals play picigin in knee-deep water, or to the quieter coves under Marjan with pine shade and deeper water. Most of the shore is pebble or concrete, though, and it fills up in high summer.

In Naples, swimming in the city means the rocks below the Lungomare or a small lido in Posillipo, and the water near the port is not always clean. The clear coves are a ferry ride away on Procida, Ischia and Capri, so the beach becomes a day out rather than part of every afternoon.

Food is one of the strongest reasons to pick Naples. Pizza was born here, and the city adds fried street snacks, sfogliatelle and babà, espresso drunk standing at the bar, and markets like the Pignasecca full of buffalo mozzarella and San Marzano tomatoes. Eating well takes no planning.

Split's Dalmatian cooking is good but narrower: grilled fish, black risotto, pašticada and peka baked under an iron bell. The best meals are in family konobas in Varoš, while many menus inside the palace walls are aimed at the summer crowd. Neither city offers much international food.

Naples has far more to see. The Greek street grid of Spaccanapoli is lined with Gothic and Baroque churches, and the National Archaeological Museum holds the finds from Pompeii and Herculaneum. Then there are the Cappella Sansevero, the catacombs of San Gennaro and the Capodimonte gallery, enough for a week.

Split's great sight is Diocletian's Palace, a Roman emperor's retirement home that people still live in. Its cathedral was once his mausoleum. The Meštrović Gallery is a fine addition, but beyond the palace and its Venetian lanes the list runs out quickly.

Naples has the livelier evenings, and they don't depend on the season. A night out there means gathering in squares rather than going to venues. Students drink on the steps of Piazza Bellini beside the old Greek walls, while a smarter crowd fills the small bars on the slopes of Chiaia and stays out in the lanes long after midnight. Where Naples falls short is dancing. It has few clubs worth the name, and in summer the dancing moves out to beach clubs along the coast.

Split has a smaller scene that comes and goes with the summer. On warm nights people drink along the Riva and on the stone stairways inside the palace, and unlike central Naples, Split has a few clubs near Bačvice that keep going into the early hours. Even so, much of the party crowd takes the boat to Hvar. In winter only a few bars stay busy, and an evening out is a quiet drink with locals rather than a night in the streets.

The outdoors is equally strong in both cities, but the landscapes are very different. Naples sits among volcanoes. You can walk to the crater rim of Vesuvius, explore the oak-filled crater of Astroni and the cone of Monte Nuovo in the Phlegraean Fields, or snorkel at Gaiola, and the Path of the Gods above the Amalfi Coast is within reach. Green space inside the city is scarce, though.

Split is limestone and open sea. Marjan's forest trails start on foot from the old town, Mosor and Biokovo offer real ridge hikes, and the Cetina canyon at Omiš is used for rafting and canyoning. Add sea kayaking and sailing among the islands, and Split leans more towards active sport.

Naples is one of the best day-trip bases anywhere. Pompeii and Herculaneum are each under an hour away by local train, and Oplontis, Stabiae and the royal palace at Caserta are close by. Hydrofoils run to Capri and Ischia, Sorrento leads on to Positano and Amalfi, and Paestum's Greek temples lie further south.

Split also has a good spread of trips, including medieval Trogir, Šibenik's cathedral, the ruins of Salona and the islands of Hvar and Brač. None of them has the fame of Naples' list, though, and outside summer the ferries need more planning.

Neapolitans are warm towards children, but the city itself wears families out. Scooters cut through narrow lanes, pavements are uneven or missing, and pushchairs struggle on cobbles. Older children do get a lot from the tunnels, the funiculars and Pompeii.

Split is easier in a plain way: a compact, safe centre, shallow water at Bačvice and shade on Marjan. Neither city has much built for children, and in both places many families stay just outside and come in for the day.

Split is simpler to manage. The palace, Varoš, the markets and Bačvice are all within about fifteen minutes' walk, and the ferry port, bus station and railway station sit together on the harbour. That makes island and coast trips very easy to start. Only the polished stone steps inside the palace slow you down.

Naples has more transport but less reliability. Metro Line 1, with its art-filled stations, and four funiculars work well, but buses crawl through traffic and the Circumvesuviana is old and crowded. Crossing the road takes nerve.

Naples gives you far more reason to shop. Chiaia's tailoring workshops make suits, shirts and silk ties by hand. Via Toledo and the Galleria Umberto I arcade cover the high street, and the workshops on Via San Gregorio Armeno carve nativity figures all year. Cameos and coral from Torre del Greco are also on sale.

In Split, shopping is mostly palace souvenirs and the chains on Marmontova. The Pazar green market, with its figs, honey and local brandies, is the most enjoyable stop, and Dalmatian wine and olive oil make the best things to take home.

Naples stretches a budget further. Pizza, street food, coffee at the bar and the funiculars all cost little, and the historic centre is full of modest B&Bs. Prices only climb when you head out to Capri, the Amalfi Coast or a summer beach club.

In July and August, rooms near Split's old town cost about what a big Western European city charges, and waterfront fish is sold by weight at high prices. Bakeries, the market and buses stay cheap all year, and in May, June and late September rooms cost far less.

Naples has the far richer stage. The Teatro di San Carlo, built for the Bourbon kings, is the oldest working opera house in Europe and holds a full season of opera, ballet and concerts. Concerts at the San Pietro a Majella conservatory, chamber music in churches and Neapolitan song in small venues add to it.

Split's Croatian National Theatre stages opera and ballet, and the Split Summer Festival performs in the palace's Peristyle courtyard. Klapa singing echoes in the palace vestibule. Outside summer, though, there is little on.

Neither city is restful in itself, and the escape is different in each. Naples sits on volcanic ground with genuine thermal water: the Roman-era springs at Agnano on the city's edge, and Ischia, a true spa island of terraced thermal pools about an hour away by hydrofoil.

Split has no bathing tradition, so spa time means hotel spas. What it offers instead is fjaka, the Dalmatian habit of idling over long coffees on the Riva, and that calm is easiest to find in the pine woods around Marjan.