VacationSelector
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Florence or Kyoto?

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

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • wellness
  • families
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Kyoto’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, Kyoto 15: Kyoto leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Florence 74, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Florence 94, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Florence 42, Kyoto 35: Florence leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florence 58, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Florence 98, Kyoto 96: Florence leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Florence 45, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Florence 78, Kyoto 72: Florence leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Florence and Kyoto are level on 72.
Affordability. Florence 35, Kyoto 50: Kyoto leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Florence 58, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florence 42, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Florence and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Florence
59match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

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

Kyoto in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
225 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
FlorenceKyoto

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.

Kyoto's sunshine is measured 43 km from the centre, at Osaka.

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). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFlorenceKyoto
Official languageItalianJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation50 m51 m
Main airportFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureFlorenceKyoto
City population360,9301,463,723
People per km²3,5281,768
Museums within 10 km14177
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km44
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Florence or Kyoto 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.