Padua or Positano?

Swimming is a big part of a stay in Positano. From Spiaggia Grande, Fornillo and the coves reached by stairway or boat, you swim in deep, clear water under the cliffs. The shore is coarse grey sand and pebbles and shelves steeply, so bring water shoes.

Padua has no beach of its own. Sottomarina or the Lido of Venice make a day out about an hour away, with shallow, calm water that suits paddling children but a flat line of umbrellas instead of cliffs and coves.

Padua offers the wider and more everyday table. Bigoli with duck, baccalà, risotto with peas and the morning stalls of Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza della Frutta make eating part of daily life, with Euganean wine and the spritz alongside.

In Positano you eat on terraces looking over the sea, and the clams, grilled fish and lemon desserts are lovely the first time. The menus repeat one another, though, there is little market or street food, and many kitchens shut for the winter.

Padua has far more to see. The Scrovegni Chapel, the UNESCO-listed fourteenth-century fresco cycles, the Basilica of Saint Anthony, the Palazzo della Ragione and the oldest university botanical garden can easily fill several days.

In Positano the town itself is the sight: the majolica dome of Santa Maria Assunta and the Roman villa with painted walls underneath it. Anyone who wants more has to go to Pompeii or Naples.

In neither town will you find a big night out, but Padua has more going on. Students keep the squares and the wine bars of the old ghetto busy on term-time evenings, and the aperitivo crowd stays late on warm nights.

Positano's evenings are about a drink with a view and a long dinner, plus one dressy club in a cave at the end of the main beach. Once the summer season ends, there is little left.

Positano has the more spectacular landscape, right at the door. The Path of the Gods runs along cliffs high above the sea, woodland trails climb to ridges above 1,000m, and kayaks can follow the rock face out to grottoes and the Li Galli islets.

From Padua you have to travel a little to reach the countryside. The Euganean Hills, about 15km away, offer vineyards, woods and quiet cycling roads, the Brenta towpaths make gentle bike rides, and real mountain walking means driving to Monte Grappa or Asiago.

Both are excellent bases for day trips, and Padua's are easier to do. Fast trains make Venice, Vicenza, Verona, Bologna and Ferrara simple to reach in any month, and the Brenta villas and the walled towns around the Euganean Hills are closer still.

Positano's list is just as tempting: Amalfi, Ravello, Capri, Pompeii and Paestum. The difference is that it depends on boats that mostly run from spring to autumn and a slow coast road, so it takes more planning and more patience.

Neither town is built around children, but Padua is the easier one with a pushchair. Its centre is flat, largely closed to traffic and has room to run in Prato della Valle, and Gardaland and Lake Garda are a day trip away.

Positano is a town of stairs with a steeply shelving pebble shore. It works for older children who love boats and swimming, but it is tiring with toddlers.

Getting around is far simpler in Padua. Almost everything is within a 20-minute walk on flat, arcaded streets, a tram links the station to the centre, and main-line trains take you out in every direction without a car.

Positano is small, but almost every walk involves steep steps. Buses on the single coast road fill up and crawl in summer, and the ferries that are the easiest way out mostly run only in season.

Shopping is about equally rewarding in the two towns, but you come home with different things. Padua's arcades have Italian shoes, bookshops and delicatessens, a monthly antiques market fills Prato della Valle, and the morning markets are good for cheese and Euganean wine to take home.

Positano sells one look and does it well. Its lanes are full of white linen, printed resort wear in the moda Positano style, sandals made to fit while you wait, and hand-painted ceramics.

Padua costs what a mid-sized northern Italian city normally does. Its reasonably priced hotels are why many visitors sleep there and spend the day in Venice.

Positano ranks among the most expensive stays in Italy. You pay extra for the view on your room, your lounger and your dinner, and boats and transfers add more. Staying in Praiano or Sorrento, or coming in May or October, makes it gentler on the wallet.

Padua has a small but steady programme all year: theatre and some opera at Teatro Verdi, chamber concerts in the Sala dei Giganti and the Basilica, and student music venues. The Fenice and the Arena in Verona are both close enough for a night out.

Positano itself has only the odd summer concert in a church or square. The real draw nearby is Ravello's classical festival on a terrace above the sea.

Padua has the stronger spa tradition. Abano Terme and Montegrotto, about 12km away, make up one of Europe's largest thermal districts, with hot mineral pools and mud treatments, and day visitors are welcome.

In Positano, relaxing means a hotel spa, a pool cut into the cliff and a long afternoon on a terrace. In July and August, though, the crowds and the stairs make the town feel anything but restful.