VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Athens by Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Athens or La Spezia?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Athens for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Athens’s own page.

Choose La Spezia for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on La Spezia’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Athens 70, La Spezia 60: Athens leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, La Spezia 58: Athens leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, La Spezia 40: Athens leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, La Spezia 28: Athens leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, La Spezia 79: La Spezia leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Athens 58, La Spezia 48: Athens leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Athens 66, La Spezia 70: La Spezia leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, La Spezia 35: Athens leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, La Spezia 50: Athens leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, La Spezia 28: Athens leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens 42, La Spezia 32: Athens leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and La Spezia.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Athens
Best match
67match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

La Spezia
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Athens in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

La Spezia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
20 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
AthensLa Spezia

Where the figures come from

La Spezia's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

La Spezia has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensLa Spezia
Official languageGreekItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation74 m3 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensLa Spezia
City population643,45292,119
People per km²16,4991,792
Museums within 10 km8812
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Athens or La Spezia somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.