VacationSelector
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Florence or Salvador?

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
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Salvador for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Florence 74, Salvador 66: Florence leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Florence 94, Salvador 74: Florence leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Florence 42, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florence 58, Salvador 52: Florence leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Florence 98, Salvador 56: Florence leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Florence 45, Salvador 42: Florence leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Florence 78, Salvador 42: Florence leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Florence 72, Salvador 42: Florence leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Florence 35, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Florence 58, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florence 42, Salvador 32: Florence leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Florence and Salvador.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Florence
59match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Salvador
58match

Wins on beaches and prices 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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
FlorenceSalvador

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). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFlorenceSalvador
Official languageItalianPortuguese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation50 m8 m
Main airportFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureFlorenceSalvador
City population360,9302,417,678
People per km²3,5283,489
Museums within 10 km14149
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Florence or Salvador 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.