Naples or Zadar?

Zadar makes swimming part of everyday life. People swim in clear water straight off the stone promenade, Kolovare is a short walk from the old town and Borik has pine shade, although all three are pebble or concrete rather than sand. Nin's long sandy shallows are only twenty minutes away, and Sakarun on Dugi Otok makes a good full day out.

In Naples you swim from the rocks below the Lungomare or at 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 beach day here means a boat trip, not a routine.

For food, Naples is in a different league. Neapolitan pizza was born here and is still made in loud rooms along Via dei Tribunali, and fried seafood, frittatine, sfogliatelle and babà make eating on the street a pleasure of its own. Ragù, genovese and Campanian wines fill out the trattoria meals, though there is little foreign food.

Zadar offers solid Dalmatian cooking: grilled fish, black risotto, peka and Pag cheese, with Maraschino to finish. Menus vary little from one konoba to the next, and you eat well here without the food being a reason to come.

Naples could fill a week. Its huge historic centre is laid out on a Greek grid and lined with Gothic and Baroque churches. The Archaeological Museum holds the finds from Pompeii, and below the streets lie catacombs and cisterns. Add the Royal Palace, Sant'Elmo and the Capodimonte gallery, and the list goes on.

Zadar's history is packed onto one small peninsula: the Roman forum, the round church of St Donatus, the Venetian walls and a fine Museum of Ancient Glass. The Sea Organ adds a modern touch, but two days covers it all.

Naples has the livelier nights, though they are about crowds in the street rather than venues. Students drink on the steps of Piazza Bellini beside the Greek walls, and a better-dressed crowd fills the bars and alleys of Chiaia until well past midnight.

Zadar's evenings begin at sunset by the Sea Organ and move on to café-bars on Kalelarga and terrace bars on the walls, all fairly calm. The serious clubbing is at Zrće on Pag, an hour away and only in high summer, and the town is quiet from October to May.

Both make strong bases for the outdoors, but the landscapes are very different. Around Naples it is all volcanoes: the crater rim of Vesuvius, the craters of the Phlegraean Fields with Astroni's oak woods, snorkelling at Gaiola and the Path of the Gods high above the Amalfi Coast.

Zadar has mountains and islands instead, and slightly more range. You can climb and hike in Paklenica's limestone gorges, sail among the bare Kornati islands, see Krka's waterfalls an hour away and go sea kayaking along the coast. In both places, midsummer heat makes walking hard work.

Naples has few rivals for day trips. Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and Sorrento are all on one suburban train line, Caserta's palace is a short ride inland, and hydrofoils run from Molo Beverello to Capri, Ischia and Procida. You can see all of it without a car.

Zadar has fine outings too: Šibenik's cathedral, the tiny royal town of Nin, and Split and Trogir further down the motorway. Most of these work far better with a hire car or an organised excursion, and the longer ones make for a full day.

Zadar is the easier city with young children. The old town is flat and car-free, the waterfront promenade suits pushchairs, and the Sea Organ and the light-up Greeting to the Sun keep children happy at dusk. Days are mostly spent at the sea, and Nin's shallow sand is ideal for small children.

Naples welcomes children warmly but tests parents with scooters, steps and broken pavements. It does have a zoo, the Edenlandia amusement park and a science museum, none of which Zadar can offer, and older children love the tunnels and Pompeii.

Getting around is roughly as easy in both, but in different ways. Naples relies on Metro Line 1 with its art-filled stations and four funiculars up to Vomero, while its buses and the Circumvesuviana are slow and unreliable. Zadar is simpler: you can cross the flat old town on foot in a quarter of an hour, and island ferries leave from its edge, but the national parks really call for a car.

Naples gives shoppers far more to do. Chiaia's tailoring workshops make handmade suits, shirts and ties, Via Toledo and the Galleria Umberto I cover the main high-street names, and Via San Gregorio Armeno is lined with nativity-figure workshops. Coral and cameos from Torre del Greco make fine souvenirs.

Zadar's shopping is limited to the shops on Kalelarga and the market by the walls. What is worth taking home is local produce: Maraschino, Pag cheese, olive oil and Pag lace.

Naples is the cheaper place for everyday spending. Pizza, coffee at the bar, trattoria lunches, funiculars and B&Bs in the historic centre all cost little, and the bills only climb once you head for Capri or the Amalfi Coast.

Day to day, Zadar works out somewhat dearer, closer to an ordinary Western European city than to southern Italy. Its costs rise with the season rather than with distance. Private apartments are good value in spring and autumn, but rooms on the peninsula climb steeply in July and August. In Naples it is the islands that cost more, while in Zadar the extra spending goes on national park entry and boat excursions.

Naples has a far richer calendar. The Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, runs a full season of opera, ballet and concerts. The conservatory and the churches of the historic centre add chamber music, and Neapolitan song lives on in small shows and trattorias.

Zadar's best musical moment is the summer series of early music held inside St Donatus, an unforgettable setting, with klapa singing in the squares in July and August. Outside summer there is little to go to.

For real spa time, Naples has the edge, though not in the city itself. Ischia's terraced thermal parks are about an hour away by hydrofoil, and Agnano's springs have been in use since Roman times. Naples itself is loud and draining, so people who come mainly to unwind usually stay on Ischia.

Zadar has no bathing culture beyond the hotel spas at Borik and the mud lagoon at Nin. What it does have is an unhurried pace: long café mornings and the sunset over the islands from the Sea Organ steps.