VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License.

Cologne 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 Cologne for

  • families
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Florence for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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. Cologne and Florence are level on 14.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Florence 74: Florence leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Florence 94: Florence leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Florence 42: Cologne leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Florence 58: Florence leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Florence 98: Florence leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Florence 45: Cologne leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Florence 78: Florence leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Florence 72: Florence leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Florence 35: Cologne leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Florence 58: Cologne leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Florence 42: Cologne leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cologne
58match

Wins on families and nightlife with your weighting.

Florence
59match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cologne in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
81 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Florence in July

32 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
37 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
CologneFlorence

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. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Florence: 1995-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Firenze / Peretola (5.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneFlorence
Official languageGermanItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation59 m50 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneFlorence
City population1,025,523360,930
People per km²2,5323,528
Museums within 10 km40141
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km34

Where else could you go?

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