Which legendary Italian coast is for you - Amalfi or Cinque Terre?

By Mal Chenu

The Amalfi Coast and Cinque Terre are situated at opposite ends of the Italian boot, if the boot is a top-of-the-range Salvatore Ferragamo. Both these picture-perfect, uber-'grammable stretches of superlative seaside are right out of La Bella Italia central casting, and choosing between them is as intolerable as choosing between pizza and tiramisu. Between da Vinci and Michelangelo. Between Lollobrigida and Loren.

But if you want to indulge in the ultimate la dolce vita, it has to be the Amalfi, where the dramatic cliffs and striking grottos of the Sorrentine Peninsula meet the turquoise Tyrrhenian Sea.

Costiera Amalfitana is named for the main town of Amalfi, located at the foot of Monte Cerreto, just one of the 13 stupenda towns comprising the "Coast".

Cinque Terre, as the name suggests, has only five settlements, which means the Coast has 160 per cent more delightful and fascinating towns to explore. Such as Vietri sul Mare, Conca dei Marini and attractive Atrani, the star of the Netflix series Ripley.

Another is the picture-perfect vertical town of Positano, where Roman aristocrats used to party. These days the aristocratici and jet set relax on Marina Grande beach, shop for fluttering dresses and stylish linen shirts, and dine on linguine with scampi at trattorias high up on the rock.

Indeed, the whole area was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, pretty much just for being gorgeous.

The Amalfi Coast is also home to some of the finest hotels in Italy. For a lazy five grand a night you can stay at Le Sirenuse in Positano, best reached in a hired Lamborghini or a Ferrari.

You'll most likely come here via Naples, and 'scusa mi, but old NapoIi is a must-see, and not just because hearts will play, tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay, like a gay tarantella, but also to see Vesuvius and Pompei, the catacombs, the duomo and the 12th-century-built Castel dell'Ovo (Castle of the Egg) among rather a lot more. And just across the Bay of Naples is the island of Capri, another Roman holiday-cum-modern-resort, and home to the legendary Blue Grotto sea cave.

The cuisine here is every bit as spectacular as the scenery, boasting the highest concentration of Michelin-starred ristorantes in the country. Make sure you visit a pasticceria and try a sfogliatella or a zeppole, the Lollobrigida and Loren of Amalfi Coast pastries. Another gastronomic bonus is the best lemons in the world, grown on terraced hillsides overlooking the sea. They're both delicately sour and somehow subtly sweet, and you'll find the distinctive citrusy zest featuring prominently on menus everywhere.

If the world gives you lemons, make limoncello. And if the world gives you a Ferrari full of cash, make your way to the Amalfi Coast.

By Amy Cooper

Sure, you could put on your Capri pants, head to Glam-alfi and hang out with Mal on his superyacht. But you'd be jostling for ritzy real estate with Kardashians, Clooneys, Beckhams and Bezoses plus thickets of selfie-stickheads - especially now the Amalfi Coast's favourite fictional psychopath is back in Netflix's Ripley. Why did they shoot that show in black and white? Maybe the glitz was just too shiny.

Nobody photographs the Cinque Terre in black and white. It would be an aesthetic crime to diminish the technicolour beauty of its five villages (Cinque Terre means "five lands") with their pastel houses clustered on cliffs in all the shades of a child's paintbox. No wonder this north-west Italian idyll was the inspiration for a delightful Disney animation (Luca - he's a sea monster, but still cuter than Ripley).

The medieval villages, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso, cling to precipitous perches high above the blue-oooooh Ligurian Sea. Higher still, olive groves, lemon orchards and vineyards grow at giddy gradients on vertiginous hillside terraces. Growers here need the mettle of abseilers. Their grandparents were even fitter, getting around via the Cinque Terre National Park's 120km patchwork of wildflower-lined ancient footpaths - the only highways right up until the 20th century. Now they're a hiking heaven, and one of the loveliest ways to experience the landscape. I won't lie - they can be tough, often with stairways instead of streets and more drops than your local bottle shop. The ups and downs will give you calves like Carrara marble.

But following the Senturio Azzuro (or Blue Path) along its 11km meander through all the villages, taking in medieval treasures like ruined clifftop fortress Obertenghi Monterosso and the Church of San Giovanni Battista, is slow travel at its best. So is the 5 Terre Express train, or the inter-village ferry - billion-dollar views, no superyacht required.

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With just one beach, at Monterosso, the Cinque Terre's craggy coast may not suit those who like to get friendly down in the sand. But sunbathing among crevices means no pesky grains in yours, and the locals have thoughtfully installed ladders from sun-kissed boulders into the blissful blue. Rocky shores make for clearer waters, too, all the better for soaking up the Cinque Terre Marine Reserve and its Cetacean Sanctuary, where whales and dolphins frolic in their thousands.

Liguria's cuisine beckons in harbourside and clifftop trattorias, their tables groaning with bounty from the region that invented focaccia and pesto. Toast the ocean sunsets with Cinque Terre's fragrant light white wines, and spare a thought for Ripley's mates desperately dazzling each other down in Amalfi. The Italian Riviera rules. Why the focaccia would you go anywhere else?