Genoa or Siena?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and nightlife with your weighting.
Wins on museums & heritage with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Genoa if you want the sea in the trip: 37 beaches within reach, four months warm enough to swim, and far more places to eat and drink once the day ends.
Choose Siena if the trip is about art and old stone: more museums than Genoa and five UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, in a town small enough to cross on foot in an afternoon.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Genoa leads by 73 points.73
| Genoa | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 37 | 0 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 64 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | — |
Places to eat. Genoa leads by 18 points.18
| Genoa | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 32 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 691 | 242 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 14 | 11 |
Museums & heritage. Siena leads by 16 points.16
| Genoa | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 71 |
| Museums within 10 km | 47 | 55 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 33 | 51 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 70 | 93 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 5 |
Nightlife. Genoa leads by 33 points.33
| Genoa | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 17 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 637 | 142 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 419 | 119 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 66 | 84 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 17 | 1 |
Nature & day trips. Genoa leads by 16 points.16
| Genoa | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 19 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 8 | 3 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 61 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 29 hectares | 29 hectares |
Good for families. Genoa leads by 7 points.7
| Genoa | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 31 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 21 | 13 |
| Park area within 2 km | 29 hectares | 29 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Genoa leads by 11 points.11
| Genoa | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 61 | 50 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 130 | 69 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Genoa and Siena are level on 68.
| Genoa | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Genoa leads by 9 points.9
| Genoa | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | 11.7 °C to 27.9 °C | 8.9 °C to 31.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 12 mm to 122 mm | 49 mm to 136 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 0 |
Where they differ
Genoa puts you on the coast: 37 beaches within reach and four months with the sea at 21°C or warmer, up to 25°C in August. It also has many more restaurants near the centre than Siena and a somewhat wider range of kitchens, many more bars and clubs, and roughly double the notable places within walking distance of the centre.
Siena's return is heritage: somewhat more museums, and five UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Genoa's one.
Where they are alike
Neither is built around children: park space near the centre is similar in both, and neither has a theme park within reach, so a family trip rests on streets and museums either way.
Both are compact enough to walk, with their notable places clustered in the centre. Winters are mild rather than harsh, with January highs of 12°C in Genoa and 9°C in Siena, and both are well past 20°C by May.
Which traveller are you?
If the point of the trip is swimming, Genoa is the only option here: 37 beaches within reach and sea at 25°C in August, where Siena has no coast at all.
A traveller who plans days around museums and old towns should take Siena: more museums than Genoa, and five UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against one, all in a centre you can walk.
Anyone who wants evenings out, or simply choice at dinner, belongs in Genoa: many more bars and clubs, many more restaurants near the centre, and a somewhat wider range of kitchens.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure is a national price level and is identical for both cities by construction, so the comparison between them tells you nothing about which costs more. The €155 daily budget beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either place, so do not read it as a trait of Genoa or Siena.
No weather station near Siena records sunshine hours, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured rather than poor. And Genoa's coastal strength lands in July and August, the months when everyone else is on those beaches too.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Genoa: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (6.7 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).
Genoa is at its best in July and August: highs of 27-28°C, sea at 24-25°C and the driest weeks of the year, 12-20mm. Autumn turns heavily wet on the coast.
Siena works better in late spring and early autumn. June sits at 28°C and is drier than the months around it; September holds 26°C but is among the wettest at 103mm. Midsummer reaches 31°C, hot for walking a hill town.
Getting there
| Flying from | Genoa | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| MadridMAD | 2 h 0 m €63-91 MXP · 137 km | 2 h 10 m no fares FLR · 55 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 30 m no fares GOA · 7 km | 1 h 40 m €143-159 FLR · 55 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 45 m no fares GOA · 7 km | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 86 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 15 m €67-76 LIN · 119 km | 1 h 30 m no fares FLR · 55 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 10 m no fares GOA · 7 km | 55 m €136-139 1 stop FLR · 55 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 55 m no fares GOA · 7 km | 2 h 5 m €180-199 1 stop FLR · 55 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 45 m €223-292 2 stops GOA · 7 km | 1 h 55 m €232-255 2 stops FLR · 55 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 40 m €140-309 MXP · 137 km | 2 h 25 m €154-191 1 stop BLQ · 135 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 35 m €78-142 MXP · 137 km | 2 h 45 m €267-328 1 stop FLR · 55 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 10 m €375-563 MXP · 137 km | 5 h 55 m no fares BLQ · 135 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Genoa | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Italian | Italian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CFL230 V, 50 Hz | CFL230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 20 m | 322 m |
| Main airport | Genoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)7 km from centre23 non-stop destinations | Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre36 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Genoa | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 558,745 | 52,812 |
| People per km² | 2,325 | 446 |
| Museums within 10 km | 51 | 29 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 41 | 25 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 4 months | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Genoa or Siena somewhere new.