Salerno or Sorrento?

Neither town has a great beach on its doorstep, and the swimming differs in kind. Salerno's own grey-sand beaches east of the centre are fine for a quick dip, though the water near the port is not the clearest. The real draw is the long sandy shore towards Paestum, where pine woods and lidos make a full day by the sea.

Sorrento has almost no sand. You swim off wooden piers at Marina Piccola and Marina Grande into deep, clear water, or from the rocks at the Bagni della Regina Giovanna, and space is tight in high summer. Salerno is the choice for sand and room to spread out, Sorrento for clear water a lift ride below town.

Both cook from the same Campanian larder, so the difference lies in where the good meals are found. Salerno's old town is lined with trattorias, friggitorie and pastry shops. Buffalo mozzarella comes fresh from the Paestum plain and colatura from Cetara next door, and the everyday cooking is honest almost wherever you sit down.

In Sorrento you have to look harder. The streets around Piazza Tasso lean on menus for tour groups, but the back-lane trattorias, the fish places at Marina Grande and the hill villages reward the effort, and the peninsula holds some of southern Italy's most celebrated fine dining. Gnocchi alla sorrentina is the dish to try.

Salerno has more to see within the town. Its Norman cathedral, with Saint Matthew's relics in the crypt, the Giardino della Minerva with its link to Europe's earliest medical school, and the Arechi Castle above the gulf tell a real medieval story across a warren of stepped lanes.

Sorrento's own sights are smaller in scale. The cathedral, the Sedile Dominova loggia, the cloister of San Francesco and the Museo Correale fill a gentle day, and the ravine of the Vallone dei Mulini adds an odd footnote. In both towns, the region's great ancient sites lie outside.

Salerno has the livelier evenings. On weekends and right through summer, the small squares around Largo Campo and Via dei Mercanti fill with young locals drinking outside wine bars and pubs until late.

Sorrento goes quiet early for most of the year. Evenings mean cocktails on a terrace over the bay, piano bars playing Neapolitan songs to an older crowd, and a few pubs for British visitors. Neither is a clubbing town, and from Sorrento a night out in Naples means staying over, because the last trains and ferries leave in the evening.

Both look onto the same dramatic limestone coast, and both put the Path of the Gods within reach. Salerno sits at the eastern end of the Amalfi Coast. To the south it also opens onto the Cilento, with its wooded hills, the gorges of the Calore and the wild headlands around Palinuro.

Sorrento sits on the peninsula itself. Trails lead from town to Punta Campanella and the protected bay of Ieranto, and the beech woods of Monte Faito and the crater rim of Vesuvius are close by. Walkers who want to set off on foot will prefer Sorrento, and those after wilder country further afield will prefer Salerno.

Both are superb bases, and the difference is direction. From Salerno, the Greek temples of Paestum are about half an hour south by train, Pompeii and Naples are close, and ferries run to Amalfi. The Certosa di Padula makes a longer outing inland.

Sorrento faces the other way. Capri is well under an hour by ferry, and the Circumvesuviana runs to Pompeii and Herculaneum, with Vesuvius on the same day. Ischia and Procida are within reach, while Paestum becomes a long day on the road. Choose by whether temples or islands matter more to you.

Salerno is easier with children. The long, flat, car-free seafront has gardens and playgrounds, the sandy beaches south of the city are shallow, and the Luci d'Artista Christmas lights make a winter outing. The steep stepped old town is the main drawback.

Sorrento's flat centre is easy with a pushchair, and boat trips to Capri go down well. But the swimming is into deep water from piers and rocks, and the hillside hotels on lanes without pavements lead many families to rely on a hotel pool instead.

Salerno is the more straightforward base. The station, the shopping street, the seafront and the old town lie on one walkable strip. Regional trains run direct to Naples, Pompeii and Paestum, and a short metro line serves the eastern districts.

Sorrento's centre is small and flat, but leaving it is harder. The Circumvesuviana is cheap but old, crowded and prone to delays, and hotels in the hills rely on shuttles or taxis. In both, ferries beat the packed summer buses along the coast, and a car is more trouble than help.

Salerno has more ordinary shopping. Corso Vittorio Emanuele is a long pedestrian run of Italian chains and clothing stores, at its busiest during the evening passeggiata, and Vietri's hand-painted majolica is just outside town.

Sorrento leans towards souvenirs and crafts: lemon soaps and limoncello, intarsia boxes and trays, cameos, and leather sandals made to measure while you wait. Neither has much luxury shopping, and both send serious shoppers to Naples.

Here the gap is wide. Salerno is a working city, so rooms cost much less than on the coast, and coffee bars and trattorias charge local prices. That makes it a sensible base for an expensive region, especially outside summer.

Sorrento charges resort prices in summer for sea-view rooms, terrace dining, lido sunbeds and boat trips. Pizza and back-lane trattorias stay fairly priced, and spring and late autumn bring hotel rates down, but a stay here costs noticeably more.

Salerno has a proper stage in the Teatro Verdi, a gilded nineteenth-century opera house modelled on the San Carlo. Its season of opera, concerts and ballet draws audiences from across the region.

Sorrento's offering is lighter: shows of Neapolitan song and tarantella staged for visitors, summer chamber concerts in the cloister of San Francesco, and pianists in the hotel bars. For opera, you go an hour to Naples, though the Ravello Festival's cliff-top concerts are an option from either town.

Sorrento is the better choice for a restful stay. Its cliff hotels have spas, pools and terraces over the bay, the gardens of the old villas set an unhurried tone, and Ischia's thermal gardens are about an hour away by ferry.

Salerno's calm comes mostly from sunset walks along its palm-lined promenade and from the quiet upper lanes in the morning. Traffic and noise along the main roads work against a real retreat, and its nearest thermal pools are at Contursi Terme, an hour inland.