Pisa or Salerno?

Salerno has the better beaches, mainly because of what lies around it. Its own grey-sand city beaches are fine for a quick dip but murky near the port. Ferries reach the clear water and pebbly coves of Vietri, Cetara and the Amalfi Coast, and the coast south towards Paestum has kilometres of sand backed by pine woods for a full day by the sea.

From Pisa the sea is about 12km away. Tirrenia and Calambrone have wide, shallow sandy beaches under the pines, and the water near the Arno mouth is rarely clear. It works well as a summer afternoon off from sightseeing rather than a reason to come.

Salerno eats better. Campanian cooking brings fried seafood, pasta with clams, wood-fired pizza and buffalo mozzarella eaten fresh from the plain towards Paestum, along with colatura from Cetara and lemon pastries in the old-town shops.

Pisa's table is plainer Tuscan fare: ribollita, game, salt cod and hot cecina from wood ovens. The best of it is in the student trattorias around Piazza delle Vettovaglie, but the range is narrow and the menus near the tower are best avoided.

Pisa is well ahead. The cathedral, baptistery, tower and Camposanto make one of Italy's great architectural set pieces, and the city beyond them adds Vasari's palace on Piazza dei Cavalieri, the Gothic jewel of Santa Maria della Spina and the medieval collections of San Matteo.

Salerno's heritage is medieval and on a smaller scale. It has a Norman cathedral with the relics of Saint Matthew, the medicinal garden linked to Europe's first medical school and the Arechi Castle above the gulf. The region's great ancient sites are all outside the city.

Neither city is a place for clubbing, and evenings in both mean drinks outside small bars in old-town squares. Pisa's rhythm follows the university: busy during term, quiet out of it, with the crowd moving to beach bars in summer. Salerno's lanes around Largo Campo fill at weekends and all summer, the seafront passeggiata adds a slow evening walk, and Naples is close for a bigger night.

Pisa's outdoors are gentle and close by. The San Rossore park begins at the city's edge, with pine forest, wetland and undeveloped dunes, fallow deer, flat roads for cycling and Lake Massaciuccoli for birdwatching. East of the city, the low Monte Pisano has easy walks on olive-terrace paths above Calci and Vicopisano. Real mountain hiking is a separate, longer outing to the marble peaks of the Apuan Alps.

Salerno has the more dramatic landscape, and much more of it is right on the doorstep. It sits where the Amalfi Coast begins, with limestone cliffs dropping into the sea, terraced lemon groves and old mule tracks crossing the Lattari mountains. The Cilento's wooded hills, river gorges and wild headlands around Palinuro lie to the south, and boat trips along the coast make the sea part of an outdoor day as well.

Both are superb bases, and the difference is in what you see. Pisa opens up Renaissance and medieval Tuscany: Florence in an hour, walled Lucca in half that, hill towns such as Volterra and San Gimignano, plus the Cinque Terre to the north.

From Salerno the days out are ancient and coastal: the temples of Paestum and the ruins of Pompeii each about half an hour away, Herculaneum, ferries to Amalfi and Positano, and Naples a short fast-train ride away.

The two are about equal for children, for different reasons. Pisa is flat and compact, and the tower lawn gives children room to run and the famous photo, though only older children can climb. Salerno has a long car-free promenade with playgrounds, shallow sandy beaches to the south and the Luci d'Artista lights in winter. Its stepped old town and winding coast roads are harder with small children.

Pisa is the simpler city to move around. It is small and flat, the airport is linked to the station by a shuttle train, and its role as a rail hub for western Tuscany means most day trips need no car.

Salerno's centre is a walkable strip along the sea, but the castle needs a bus. In summer the Amalfi Coast is best reached by ferry, as the coastal buses are slow and packed and parking is scarce.

Salerno has the more interesting things to bring home: hand-painted majolica from Vietri, limoncello and lemon products from the coast, and colatura from Cetara, alongside the chains on Corso Vittorio Emanuele.

Pisa offers mid-range fashion on Corso Italia, smarter shoe shops under the arcades of Borgo Stretto and a monthly antiques market by the river. For serious fashion, visitors head to Florence.

Costs are similar, but they rise in different places. Salerno charges local southern prices and is far cheaper to sleep in than the cliff villages nearby, though ferries, lido sunbeds and the entry fees at the archaeological sites add up over a summer stay. Pisa's rooms are mid-range and its student trattorias are good value. The expensive parts are the tower climb and the cafés next to the monuments.

By coincidence, both cities' main stage is a nineteenth-century Teatro Verdi, each running a season of opera, concerts and ballet. Pisa's horseshoe house also stages Italian drama, and the university adds chamber music. Salerno's gilded theatre is modelled on the San Carlo, and in summer the Ravello Festival's cliff-top concerts are within reach. For bigger productions, you would go to Florence from Pisa and to Naples from Salerno.

Pisa is the more restful choice. San Giuliano Terme, just outside the city, has used its thermal waters since Roman times and has a spa in its grand 18th-century bath palace. The city itself is quiet away from the cathedral square.

Salerno's nearest springs are at Contursi Terme, about an hour inland, and its main roads carry port traffic and noise. What it offers instead is the slow sunset walk along its palm-lined seafront.