VacationSelector
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno
Senate Square and the statue of Alexander II, Helsinki
HelsinkiSenate Square and the statue of Alexander II

Photos: Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License; Helsinki by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Florence or Helsinki?

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 Florence for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Helsinki for

  • wellness
  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Helsinki’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. Florence 14, Helsinki 28: Helsinki leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Florence 74, Helsinki 52: Florence leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Florence 94, Helsinki 60: Florence leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Florence 42, Helsinki 50: Helsinki leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florence and Helsinki are level on 58.
Day trips. Florence 98, Helsinki 62: Florence leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Florence 45, Helsinki 76: Helsinki leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Florence 78, Helsinki 86: Helsinki leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Florence 72, Helsinki 62: Florence leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Florence 35, Helsinki 30: Florence leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Florence 58, Helsinki 63: Helsinki leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florence 42, Helsinki 82: Helsinki leads by 40 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Florence
59match

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

Helsinki
59match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Helsinki in July

22 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
FlorenceHelsinki

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. Florence: 1995-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Firenze / Peretola (5.6 km from centre). Helsinki: 1991-2020 normals, Helsinki Kaisaniemi / Harju (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFlorenceHelsinki
Official languageItalianFinnish, Swedish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation50 m17 m
Main airportFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsHelsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)16 km from centre136 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureFlorenceHelsinki
City population360,930694,392
People per km²3,5283,239
Museums within 10 km14174
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Florence or Helsinki 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.