Rovinj or Sorrento?

Neither town has sand, but Rovinj gives you far more room to swim. Its shoreline of limestone ledges, small pebble coves and concrete platforms runs for kilometres into the Golden Cape forest, much of it shaded by pines and reached on foot, and taxi boats cross to St Catherine and Red Island for quieter spots.

Sorrento's swimming happens at the foot of its cliff, from the wooden lido piers of Marina Piccola and Marina Grande, with ladders down into deep water and most of the space taken by paid sunbeds. The Bagni della Regina Giovanna is a beautiful rocky alternative, but for a real pebble beach you need a bus or a boat.

Sorrento has the edge at the table. Gnocchi alla sorrentina, fish all'acqua pazza, dairy from the hills and Naples-style pizza make it easy to eat well every day, and the peninsula's hill villages are home to some of southern Italy's most celebrated fine dining.

Rovinj's strength is Istrian produce: truffle pasta, scampi buzara, peppery olive oil and Malvazija and Teran wines, best found in countryside konobas that you have to drive to. In town, the range is narrower and cheap everyday eating is harder to find. Both centres are full of menus written for passing tourists, so in either place the better meals are a few lanes back.

Rovinj's old town is the better sight in itself. Built on a former island, it climbs in tall pastel Venetian houses and steep lanes such as Grisia to the hilltop church of St Euphemia, whose bell tower, copied from the campanile in Venice, gives a view over the roofs and islands. The whole quarter is intact and lovely to photograph, and the Batana House adds the story of the town's flat-bottomed fishing boats.

Sorrento's centre is less of a picture: a grid of lanes on the Roman street plan rather than a hill of Venetian facades. What it offers instead are a few separate sights, among them the cloister of San Francesco with its Arab-style arches, the Museo Correale's Neapolitan paintings and porcelain in a villa above the sea, and the ruined mill at the bottom of the Vallone dei Mulini ravine.

Both towns are quiet after dark, and the difference lies in the kind of evening. Rovinj's night is a long dinner, then a drink on the rocks below the walls at sunset, with a couple of waterfront bars and dance venues in high season. Sorrento's evening revolves around the passeggiata on Corso Italia, terrace cocktails over the bay and piano bars with Neapolitan songs. For a real night out you would have to stay over in Naples or on Capri, because the last trains and ferries leave early.

Sorrento's setting is far more dramatic. A steep limestone ridge of lemon and olive terraces drops into sheer coast, with Vesuvius across the bay and Capri just offshore, and the walking ranges from Punta Campanella and the protected bay of Ieranto to the Path of the Gods and the beech woods of Monte Faito.

Rovinj's outdoors is gentler and flatter: gravel paths through the Golden Cape's planted forest, kayaking and diving among the low islands of the archipelago, and the green walls of the Lim Fjord a short drive north. It's lovely for easy cycling and paddling, but there are no mountains to climb.

Sorrento is one of the great bases in the Mediterranean. Pompeii and Herculaneum are a short train ride away, Vesuvius can be added on the same day, Capri is under an hour by ferry, and boats run along the Amalfi Coast to Positano and Amalfi. Naples and its archaeological museum are also within an hour, all without needing a car.

Rovinj has a good choice of its own, including Pula's Roman amphitheatre, the mosaics of the Euphrasian Basilica in Porec, and hill towns such as Motovun above the truffle woods, with Trieste and Piran across the border. Most of it means driving, though, and none of it matches the fame of Sorrento's list.

Rovinj is the more practical choice with children. The Golden Cape gives shade and flat paths for bikes and pushchairs, and the large resorts and campsites around town are built for families, with pools and playgrounds. The rocky shore and the steep cobbles of the old town are its real drawbacks.

Sorrento's flat centre is easy with a pushchair, and Italian warmth towards children helps, but swimming means deep water off piers and many hotels sit on lanes without pavements. Boat trips to Capri and a train ride to Pompeii are the treats, but long bus rides along the coast wear small children out.

In both towns the centre is walkable and the challenge starts at the edge of town, but the way out is quite different. Rovinj has no railway, and its hill towns and wineries really need a car.

Sorrento works without one: the Circumvesuviana train, the coast buses and the ferries reach everything that matters, although the train is crowded and unreliable and the Amalfi road is clogged in summer. There, driving is usually more trouble than it is worth.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Sorrento offers more to browse. Along Via San Cesareo, beyond the lemon-themed souvenirs, there are proper local crafts: intarsia boxes and furniture, sandals made to measure while you wait, linen, coral and cameos.

Rovinj's shopping is mostly regional food and drink, such as truffles, olive oil, wine and brandy, plus the galleries and artists' studios on Grisia, which give the lane some character. Its range thins out once summer ends.

Both are expensive resorts in summer, and costs are broadly similar. In Rovinj, the easiest savings come from private apartments and the big campsites, while harbour restaurants and fish sold by weight are where the money goes. Sorrento keeps transport cheap, thanks to its trains and buses, and its back-lane trattorias are fair, but lido sunbeds, sea-view rooms and private boat trips quickly add up. In both towns the shoulder seasons are clearly kinder to the budget.

The real difference is the repertoire. Rovinj's local sound is the bitinada, an unaccompanied singing tradition tied to the batana boats and sometimes performed for visitors, alongside occasional classical concerts in St Euphemia and open-air music by the harbour. Sorrento's is Neapolitan: tarantella and song shows staged for visitors, pianists in hotel bars with 'Torna a Surriento' always close at hand, and chamber concerts in the cloister of San Francesco.

Both towns are mostly summer stages, and for anything bigger you go to a neighbour: big open-air concerts in Pula's Roman arena from Rovinj, or opera at Naples' Teatro di San Carlo, about an hour from Sorrento.

Rovinj's calm comes from the outdoors: a swim off the limestone ledges, a shaded walk through the Golden Cape pines and an unhurried lunch, with pools, saunas and treatments left to the bigger resort hotels along the shore. The town has no spa culture of its own, so the rest here is quiet and simple rather than pampering.

Sorrento offers more if you want to be looked after. Its cliff-top hotels pair spas with terraces looking across the bay to Vesuvius, and the lemon groves and old villa gardens set a slow mood. Ischia's terraced thermal gardens, fed by hot springs by the sea, are about an hour away by ferry and give it a real bathing outing that Rovinj cannot match. In both towns the centre is too crowded in July and August for real calm.