Como or Siena?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nature & day trips and nightlife with your weighting.
Wins on museums & heritage and sights concentration 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 Como if you want the lake and the hills around it: protected countryside, a wider set of day trips and more places to drink of an evening, with the trade-off of summer rain at 158-172mm a month.
Choose Siena if you want museums and a walkable centre where the notable places sit close together, plus a wider range of kitchens and more to occupy children.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Como and Siena are level on 0.
| Como | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 8 | 0 |
| Coast distance | 156 km | 64 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Siena leads by 7 points.7
| Como | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 25 | 32 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 259 | 242 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 7 | 11 |
Museums & heritage. Siena leads by 25 points.25
| Como | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 71 |
| Museums within 10 km | 9 | 55 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 6 | 51 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 67 | 93 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 8 | 5 |
Nightlife. Como leads by 7 points.7
| Como | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 24 | 17 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 213 | 142 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 143 | 119 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 67 | 84 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 1 | 1 |
Nature & day trips. Como leads by 21 points.21
| Como | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 19 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 23 | 3 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 5 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 15 hectares | 29 hectares |
Good for families. Siena leads by 16 points.16
| Como | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 15 | 31 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 6 | 13 |
| Park area within 2 km | 15 hectares | 29 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Siena leads by 20 points.20
| Como | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 30 | 50 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 22 | 69 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Como and Siena are level on 68.
| Como | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Siena leads by 6 points.6
| Como | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7.1 °C to 27.3 °C | 8.9 °C to 31.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 61 mm to 178 mm | 49 mm to 136 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Como is the better base for days out: 23% of the surrounding land is protected against 3% around Siena, and 8 UNESCO-listed places sit within day-trip reach against Siena's 5. It also has about twice as many places to drink.
Siena holds many times as many museums as Como, and about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, so more of a visit happens on foot. Its kitchens span a wider range, and it has about twice as many attractions and park space centrally.
Where they are alike
Neither is a swimming destination. Como has 8 beaches on the lake and Siena none, but no month in either place brings water at 21°C or more, so a trip built around swimming does not work at either.
Evenings are quiet in both, with the drinking places and clubs they do have clustered near the centre. Both have a similar number of restaurants close in, and neither has a month at 40mm of rain or less.
Which traveller are you?
A traveller who plans days around museums and old streets should take Siena: many times as many museums as Como, and about three times as many notable places within walking distance, so little time goes on transport.
Anyone who wants hills, water and day trips is better off in Como, where 23% of the surrounding land is protected against 3% around Siena, and 8 UNESCO-listed places sit within reach.
Families will find more to fill a day in Siena, with about twice as many attractions and twice as much park space near the centre, though neither city has a theme park within reach.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure here is a national price level, identical for both cities by construction, so the comparison between them carries no information. The €155 daily budget beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of Como or Siena; actual costs in either could sit well above or below it.
No weather station near Siena records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low and its monthly ratings rest on temperature and rainfall alone. Read the weather comparison with that gap in mind. Note too that Como's warmest months are also among its wettest, so a high summer rating does not promise dry days.
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. Como: 1991-2020 normals, Lugano (23 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).
Como is at its best from June to September, with highs of 25-27°C in June to August and 22°C in September. Summer rain is heavy throughout, 158-172mm a month. Its driest months, January and February at 61-69mm, are also its coldest at 7-9°C.
Siena is strongest in late spring and early autumn: June at 28°C with 71mm, and September at 26°C though rain rises to 103mm. July and August are the driest at 49-53mm but hot at 31°C. November is the wettest at 136mm.
Getting there
| Flying from | Como | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 20 m €46-63 MXP · 34 km | 1 h 40 m €143-159 FLR · 55 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 45 m €48-103 MXP · 34 km | 2 h 5 m €180-199 1 stop FLR · 55 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 45 m €31-93 BGY · 51 km | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 86 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 30 m €34-53 MXP · 34 km | 1 h 35 m €113-168 FLR · 55 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 15 m €116-135 LIN · 43 km | 55 m €136-139 1 stop FLR · 55 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 40 m €129-158 LIN · 43 km | 1 h 55 m €232-255 2 stops FLR · 55 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 0 m €63-91 MXP · 34 km | 2 h 10 m no fares FLR · 55 km |
| CataniaCTA | 1 h 55 m €36-88 MXP · 34 km | 1 h 35 m €135-156 FLR · 55 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 15 m €67-76 LIN · 43 km | 1 h 30 m no fares FLR · 55 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 10 m €375-563 MXP · 34 km | 5 h 55 m no fares BLQ · 135 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 2026-09 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 | Como | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 201 m | 322 m |
| Main airport | Milan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)34 km from centre203 non-stop destinations | Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre36 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Como | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 83,184 | 52,812 |
| People per km² | 2,242 | 446 |
| Museums within 10 km | 9 | 29 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 8 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 22 | 25 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Como or Siena somewhere new.