VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License.

Chicago 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 Chicago for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Florence for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Chicago 50, Florence 14: Chicago leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Florence 74: Chicago leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Florence 94: Florence leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Florence 42: Chicago leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Florence 58: Florence leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Florence 98: Florence leads by 56 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Florence 45: Chicago leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Florence 78: Florence leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Florence 72: Florence leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Florence 35: Florence leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Florence 58: Chicago leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Florence 42: Florence leads by 9 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Florence
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.

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
21 °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
ChicagoFlorence

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. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Florence: 1995-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Firenze / Peretola (5.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoFlorence
Official language-Italian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation179 m50 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoFlorence
City population2,746,388360,930
People per km²4,5293,528
Museums within 10 km44141
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago 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.