Catania or Naples?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on year-round weather and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and museums & heritage with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Catania if you want warmth first: highs of 16-35°C across the year and more dry months, with a small set of beaches and eating that spans a wider range of kitchens.
Choose Naples if you want a city you can walk: far more notable places within reach of the centre, roughly twice the museums, more bars and clubs, and 29 beaches nearby.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Naples leads by 18 points.18
| Catania | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 76 |
| Swim season months | 5 | 5 |
| Beaches 10 km | 5 | 29 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 1 km |
Places to eat. Catania leads by 3 points.3
| Catania | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 46 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 637 | 1,244 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 14 | 7 |
Museums & heritage. Naples leads by 19 points.19
| Catania | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 78 |
| Museums within 10 km | 34 | 84 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 27 | 68 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 79 | 81 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 5 |
Nightlife. Naples leads by 19 points.19
| Catania | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 47 | 66 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 537 | 1,389 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 403 | 964 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 75 | 69 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 18 | 40 |
Nature & day trips. Naples leads by 6 points.6
| Catania | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 37 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 10 | 7 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 61 | 56 |
| Park area within 2 km | 11 hectares | 41 hectares |
Good for families. Naples leads by 5 points.5
| Catania | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 41 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 25 | 11 |
| Park area within 2 km | 11 hectares | 41 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Naples leads by 39 points.39
| Catania | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 78 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 37 | 351 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Catania and Naples are level on 68.
| Catania | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Catania leads by 4 points.4
| Catania | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 77 | 73 |
| Monthly daytime high | 15.8 °C to 34.5 °C | 13.1 °C to 31.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 9 mm to 83 mm | 17 mm to 159 mm |
| Dry months | 5 | 3 |
Where they differ
Catania runs the warmer of the two, with daytime highs of 16-35°C across the year against Naples's 13-31°C, and more months that stay dry. Its eating leans to variety rather than volume, with a wider spread of kitchens.
Naples packs many times as many notable places into walking distance of the centre, holds about twice as many museums and puts 5 UNESCO-listed places within a day trip against Catania's 3. It also has about three times as many places to drink, and 29 beaches nearby against Catania's 5.
Where they are alike
Neither city is short of somewhere to eat, though they get there differently: Naples has about twice as many restaurants near the centre, while Catania's are drawn from a wider range of kitchens.
Both are middling for families and day trips. Naples has more park space near the centre and 3 theme parks within reach against Catania's 1, while Catania has more attractions in the centre and 10% protected land around it against 7%.
Which traveller are you?
If you want museums and monuments on foot, Naples: many times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, twice the museums, and 5 UNESCO-listed sites within day-trip reach against Catania's 3.
If you travel in the shoulder months and want warmth and variety on the plate, Catania: highs of 16-35°C across the year, more dry months, and a wider range of kitchens than Naples.
If the trip is swimming by day and drinking by night, Naples: 29 beaches nearby against Catania's 5, the sea 1km from both centres, and about three times as many places to drink.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure is a national price level shared by both cities, so it is identical by construction and tells you nothing about which trip costs less. The daily budget of €155 is one national estimate rather than a measurement of Catania or Naples, and should not be read as a trait of either.
Naples's larger beach count is about choice, not season: both have the sea 1km from the centre and the same length of swimming season, and both peak with the sea at 26°C in August, the month when Catania's air reaches 35°C.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Catania: 1991-2020 normals, Catania / Sigonella (18.9 km from centre). Naples: 1991-2020 normals, Grazzanise (28.3 km from centre).
Catania peaks in May, when highs reach 26°C and rain is down to 18mm, and it holds up in April and October; October still gives 26°C days and sea at 23°C, though rain returns at 51mm. December is its wettest at 83mm.
Naples is at its best from June to August, with 28°C in June and 31°C in July on 17mm of rain, and the sea at 26°C in August. Its autumn turns heavy, 159mm in November.
Getting there
| Flying from | Catania | Naples |
|---|---|---|
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 55 m €45-94 CTA · 4 km | 1 h 30 m €35-109 NAP · 7 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 20 m €38-50 CTA · 4 km | 55 m no fares NAP · 7 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 3 h 0 m €106-144 1 stop CTA · 4 km | 2 h 35 m €90-167 1 stop NAP · 7 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 35 m €91-153 1 stop CTA · 4 km | 2 h 10 m €108-170 NAP · 7 km |
| VeniceVCE, TSF | 1 h 45 m €49-57 CTA · 4 km | 1 h 20 m €39-65 NAP · 7 km |
| TurinTRN | 1 h 55 m €37-118 CTA · 4 km | 1 h 30 m €96-157 1 stop NAP · 7 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 10 m €166-455 CTA · 4 km | 2 h 5 m €167-197 1 stop NAP · 7 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 2 h 5 m €89-123 1 stop CTA · 4 km | 1 h 50 m €103-165 1 stop NAP · 7 km |
| Sharm el SheikhSSH | 3 h 5 m no fares CTA · 4 km | 3 h 25 m no fares NAP · 7 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 9 h 15 m no fares CTA · 4 km | 9 h 0 m no fares NAP · 7 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Catania | Naples |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Italian | Italian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CFL230 V, 50 Hz | CFL230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 7 m | 17 m |
| Main airport | Catania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)4 km from centre95 non-stop destinations | Naples International Airport (NAP)7 km from centre131 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Catania | Naples |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 311,584 | 913,462 |
| People per km² | 1,704 | 7,676 |
| Museums within 10 km | 25 | 65 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 30 | 31 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 5 months | 5 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Catania or Naples somewhere new.