Naples or Verona?

Naples has the edge, because it sits on salt water. In the city you swim off the rocks below the Lungomare or at small lidos in Posillipo, though the water near the port is not always clean, and the clear rocky coves are a boat ride away on Procida, Ischia, Capri or the Sorrento peninsula.

Verona's swimming is lake swimming: calm, tideless water on Garda's southern shore at Peschiera, Lazise or Sirmione's limestone shelves, with lidos and lawns rather than sand. Neither city is a beach base, but Naples gives you sea and islands, Verona a gentle lake.

Naples eats with more force and more variety at street level. Pizza was born here, and fried pizza, seafood cones, frittatine, sfogliatelle and standing espresso fill the day, with the Pignasecca and Porta Nolana markets showing off mozzarella, lemons and San Marzano tomatoes.

Verona is quieter and more about the glass. Its osterie serve Amarone risotto, bigoli and bollito with pearà, and Valpolicella, Soave and Bardolino are made within a short drive. Both cities are thin on international food, but Verona also lacks the street food that makes Naples so easy to graze.

Naples offers more depth. Its Greek street grid along Spaccanapoli and Via dei Tribunali is packed with churches, the National Archaeological Museum holds the treasures of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and beneath it lie tunnels, cisterns and catacombs, enough for a full week.

Verona is smaller and more legible: the Roman Arena on Piazza Bra, the Roman theatre, the Scaliger tombs, San Zeno's bronze doors and Castelvecchio in its Scarpa setting. It rewards two or three unhurried days rather than a week of digging.

Naples has the livelier nights. Students crowd the steps of Piazza Bellini beside the old Greek walls, and Chiaia's bars behind Piazza dei Martiri spill into the lanes well past midnight. Clubs are scarce, so it is a street scene rather than a dance scene.

Verona's evening is mostly aperitivo, a spritz or a Valpolicella in Piazza delle Erbe or by the river, with Veronetta's student bars staying up a little later. Most nights the centre is quiet before the small hours, except when the opera crowd leaves the Arena.

Volcanoes shape the landscape around Naples and make it the more dramatic of the two. You can walk up to the crater rim of Vesuvius, explore the old craters of the Phlegraean Fields at Astroni and Lake Avernus, snorkel in the Gaiola underwater park and hike the Path of the Gods above the Amalfi Coast.

Verona's countryside is gentler. There are vineyard walks and cycling in the Valpolicella hills, the Adige cycle route, the pastures and gorges of the Lessinia, and Monte Baldo above Lake Garda, where the wind at the northern end draws sailors and windsurfers.

Both are superb bases, and the difference is in the kind of outing. From Naples the trips are ancient and coastal: Pompeii and Herculaneum on the Circumvesuviana, the palace at Caserta, ferries to Capri and Procida, and the Amalfi Coast and Paestum beyond.

From Verona they are art cities and lakes: Venice, Padua's Scrovegni Chapel, Palladio's Vicenza and Mantua by fast, reliable trains, plus Sirmione, the Garda harbours and the wine towns of Soave and Valpolicella.

Verona is the easier city with children. Gardaland, the Garda water parks and the safari zoo at Parco Natura Viva are about half an hour away, the lake offers shallow swimming, and the flat pedestrian centre is kind to a pushchair, though a car helps for the outer attractions.

Naples welcomes children in every pizzeria, but scooters in the lanes, broken pavements and steps make it tiring with small ones. Edenlandia, the zoo and the science museum are modest, and many families prefer to stay in Sorrento or on an island.

Verona is simpler. Its centre inside the river loop is small, flat and mostly free of traffic, so walking covers nearly everything, and trains to Venice, Milan and the lake are excellent; only the Valpolicella and Lessinia call for a car.

Naples has more transport but less ease. Metro Line 1 and four funiculars help with the hills, yet buses crawl, the Circumvesuviana is crowded and unreliable, and you share the narrow lanes with scooters.

Naples is the better place to shop, because much of what it sells is made there and nowhere else. A made-to-measure shirt or silk tie from one of Chiaia's old tailoring workshops, a nativity shepherd from the craft lane of San Gregorio Armeno, or a coral piece or shell cameo carved in Torre del Greco would be hard to find in any other Italian city. For mainstream fashion, Via Toledo and the iron-and-glass Galleria Umberto I are good enough, but the handmade goods are why you shop here.

Verona's shops are well kept but rarely surprising: one elegant street of Italian brands between Piazza Bra and Piazza delle Erbe, plus a few side lanes of boutiques and jewellers. Its best souvenirs come from the wine shop and the bakery, such as a case of Amarone, Garda olive oil or the Christmas pandoro. Keen fashion shoppers end up taking the train to Milan, while in Naples the purchases worth remembering are in the city itself.

Naples is clearly kinder to the wallet. Pizza, street food, coffee and transport are cheap, and the centre has plenty of modest B&Bs; costs only climb once you head for the islands or the Amalfi Coast.

Verona's everyday eating is fair and its wine is good value, but central hotels are expensive for a city its size, especially on opera nights and during trade fairs. Staying near the station or in Veronetta helps.

Both are opera cities, in different ways. Naples has the Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, with a season of opera and ballet, plus conservatory and church concerts and Neapolitan song in trattorias.

Verona's great draw is summer opera in the Roman Arena, vast productions under the sky, with Shakespeare and jazz in the Roman theatre. In the cooler months the Teatro Filarmonico keeps a smaller season going, so Naples is steadier through the year and Verona peaks in summer.

Neither city is restful in itself, and both send you out for thermal water. From Naples that means Agnano's Roman-era springs or a hydrofoil to Ischia, a true spa island with terraced thermal parks above the sea, but the city itself is loud and crowded.

Verona is calmer day to day, with riverside walks and the Giardino Giusti, and its springs are at Sirmione's lakeside thermal centre, the spring-fed lake near Lazise and Caldiero.