VacationSelector
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Florence or Medellin?

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

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Medellin for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Medellin’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, Medellin 5: Florence leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Florence 74, Medellin 58: Florence leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Florence 94, Medellin 42: Florence leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Florence 42, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florence 58, Medellin 66: Medellin leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Florence 98, Medellin 58: Florence leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Florence 45, Medellin 50: Medellin leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Florence 78, Medellin 55: Florence leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Florence 72, Medellin 45: Florence leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Florence 35, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Florence 58, Medellin 42: Florence leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florence 42, Medellin 30: Florence leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Florence and Medellin.

Your match

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

Florence
Best match
59match

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

Medellin
51match

Wins on prices and nightlife 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
15 hdaylight a day

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
FlorenceMedellin

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.

Medellin 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.

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). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFlorenceMedellin
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation50 m1,405 m
Main airportFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureFlorenceMedellin
City population360,9302,529,403
People per km²3,5286,644
Museums within 10 km14114
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Florence or Medellin 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.