VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License.

Boston or Florence?

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 Boston for

  • families
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Florence for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Florence’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. Boston 35, Florence 14: Boston leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, Florence 74: Florence leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, Florence 94: Florence leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, Florence 42: Boston leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, Florence 58: Boston leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Boston 72, Florence 98: Florence leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, Florence 45: Boston leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, Florence 78: Florence leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, Florence 72: Florence leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, Florence 35: Florence leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, Florence 58: Boston leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston 30, Florence 42: Florence leads by 12 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boston and Florence.

Your match

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

Boston
56match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Florence
Best match
59match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Florence in July

32 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
37 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BostonFlorence

Where the figures come from

Florence 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.

Florence's sunshine is measured 71 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). Florence: 1995-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Firenze / Peretola (5.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonFlorence
Official language-Italian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation43 m50 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonFlorence
City population675,647360,930
People per km²2,9103,528
Museums within 10 km51141
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boston or Florence 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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.