VacationSelector
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno
The White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

Photos: Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License; Thessaloniki by Destinygreece, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Florence or Thessaloniki?

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
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Thessaloniki for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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, Thessaloniki 55: Thessaloniki leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Florence 74, Thessaloniki 77: Thessaloniki leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Florence 94, Thessaloniki 73: Florence leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Florence 42, Thessaloniki 76: Thessaloniki leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florence 58, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Florence 98, Thessaloniki 74: Florence leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Florence 45, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Florence 78, Thessaloniki 60: Florence leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Florence 72, Thessaloniki 50: Florence leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Florence 35, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Florence 58, Thessaloniki 52: Florence leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florence 42, Thessaloniki 33: Florence leads by 9 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Florence
59match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

Thessaloniki
61match

Wins on beaches 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
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
FlorenceThessaloniki

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). Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFlorenceThessaloniki
Official languageItalianGreek
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 m6 m
Main airportFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureFlorenceThessaloniki
City population360,930309,617
People per km²3,52816,042
Museums within 10 km14132
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
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 Thessaloniki 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.