VacationSelector
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Florence or Shanghai?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • nightlife
  • families
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: Florence leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Florence 74, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Florence 94, Shanghai 72: Florence leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Florence 42, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florence 58, Shanghai 25: Florence leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Florence 98, Shanghai 90: Florence leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Florence 45, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Florence 78, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Florence 72, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Florence 35, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Florence 58, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florence 42, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Florence and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Florence
59match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife 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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
FlorenceShanghai

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). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFlorenceShanghai
Official languageItalianPutonghua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation50 m4 m
Main airportFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureFlorenceShanghai
City population360,93024,870,895
People per km²3,5283,922
Museums within 10 km14145
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
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 Shanghai 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.