VacationSelector
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Florence or Wilmington?

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
  • getting around

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • beaches
  • families
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Florence 74, Wilmington 48: Florence leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Florence 94, Wilmington 40: Florence leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Florence 42, Wilmington 40: Florence leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florence and Wilmington are level on 58.
Day trips. Florence 98, Wilmington 45: Florence leads by 53 points.
Good for families. Florence 45, Wilmington 62: Wilmington leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Florence 78, Wilmington 28: Florence leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Florence 72, Wilmington 33: Florence leads by 39 points.
Affordability. Florence 35, Wilmington 42: Wilmington leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Florence 58, Wilmington 40: Florence leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florence 42, Wilmington 33: Florence leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Florence and Wilmington.

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.

Wilmington
45match

Wins on beaches 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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
FlorenceWilmington

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). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFlorenceWilmington
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation50 m9 m
Main airportFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureFlorenceWilmington
City population360,930115,451
People per km²3,528839
Museums within 10 km1412
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Florence or Wilmington 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.