La Spezia or Ljubljana?
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 year-round weather with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and places to eat 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 La Spezia if the trip is built around swimming: 32 beaches nearby and a sea that stays at 21°C or more for four months, with milder winters too.
Choose Ljubljana if you want a compact centre you can walk, with more museums, a wider range of kitchens and more places to drink after dark.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. La Spezia leads by 73 points.73
| La Spezia | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 32 | 10 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 72 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | — |
Places to eat. Ljubljana leads by 24 points.24
| La Spezia | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 55 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 235 | 292 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 11 | 40 |
Museums & heritage. Ljubljana leads by 13 points.13
| La Spezia | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 55 |
| Museums within 10 km | 15 | 26 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 10 | 23 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 67 | 88 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 3 |
Nightlife. Ljubljana leads by 21 points.21
| La Spezia | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 24 | 45 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 208 | 458 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 176 | 284 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 85 | 62 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 1 | 24 |
Nature & day trips. La Spezia leads by 12 points.12
| La Spezia | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 40 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 13 | 13 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 5 |
| Land share of disc % | 51 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 75 hectares |
Good for families. Ljubljana leads by 18 points.18
| La Spezia | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 38 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 3 | 12 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 75 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Ljubljana leads by 51 points.51
| La Spezia | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 7 | 58 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 6 | 109 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Ljubljana leads by 4 points.4
| La Spezia | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 72 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 59.6 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €131 |
Year-round weather. La Spezia leads by 14 points.14
| La Spezia | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 56 |
| Monthly daytime high | 11.4 °C to 30.3 °C | 4.1 °C to 27.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 32 mm to 132 mm | 67 mm to 159 mm |
| Dry months | 2 | 0 |
Where they differ
La Spezia has 32 beaches nearby against Ljubljana's 10, and four months of sea at 21°C or more where Ljubljana has none; it also runs warmer through the year, 11-30°C against 4-28°C.
Ljubljana has many more notable places within walking distance of its centre, about twice as many museums, and 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against La Spezia's 2. It also has somewhat more restaurants near the centre and a much wider range of kitchens.
Where they are alike
Value sits in much the same place for both: the national daily estimates behind them, €155 for Italy and €131 for Slovenia, are close enough that neither trip is decided on price.
Beyond that, they meet on nature and heritage. 13% of the land around each is protected, and both have museums in the centre and UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach. Summer heat is similar too, peaking at 30°C in La Spezia and 28°C in Ljubljana.
Which traveller are you?
If the sea is the point, La Spezia is the only candidate: 32 beaches within reach and four months of sea at 21°C or more, with the driest months of its year falling in midsummer.
For a short city break on foot, Ljubljana: most of its notable places, bars and clubs sit near the centre, and the range of kitchens is much wider than La Spezia's.
Families split the difference. Ljubljana has far more attractions near the centre and about three times as much park space; La Spezia counters with 2 theme parks within reach and a summer swimming season.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures are national estimates for Italy and Slovenia, not measurements of either city. A capital and a small coastal city can each sit well away from their own country's average, by more than the gap between the two figures, so treat them as background rather than a reason to choose.
La Spezia's beach strength is seasonal: the sea reaches 21°C or more for only four months, and those are the months everyone else arrives too. Its quieter shoulder months are also its wettest, and Ljubljana's warmest months are its wettest as well.
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. La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre). Ljubljana: 1991-2020 normals, Ljubljana / Bezigrad (1.9 km from centre).
June to August is La Spezia's window: highs of 27-30°C, sea at 22-25°C and only 32-41mm of rain. September still swims at 23°C but brings 102mm; October and November are wetter still, and winter stays mild at 11-13°C.
Ljubljana peaks in July and August at 28°C, though summer rain runs 121-126mm a month and September is wetter at 159mm. May and early June, at 22-26°C, are the more comfortable visits; January highs of 4°C make winter a hard sell.
Getting there
| Flying from | La Spezia | Ljubljana |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 5 m €48-62 PSA · 65 km | 2 h 5 m no fares LJU · 20 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 10 m no fares GOA · 86 km | 1 h 10 m no fares TRS · 84 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 30 m no fares TRS · 84 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 45 m €139-178 1 stop LJU · 20 km |
| PalermoPMO | 1 h 25 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 40 m no fares TRS · 84 km |
| CataniaCTA | 1 h 35 m €55-66 PSA · 65 km | 1 h 45 m no fares TRS · 84 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 25 m €154-191 1 stop BLQ · 125 km | 2 h 10 m €188-190 LJU · 20 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 30 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 25 m no fares LJU · 20 km |
| BariBRI | 1 h 20 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 20 m no fares TRS · 84 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 5 h 55 m no fares BLQ · 125 km | 5 h 45 m €374-528 2 stops LJU · 20 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 2026-09, 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 | La Spezia | Ljubljana |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Italian | Slovene |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CFL230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 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 | 3 m | 309 m |
| Main airport | Pisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre81 non-stop destinations | Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU)20 km from centre28 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 21 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | La Spezia | Ljubljana |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 92,119 | 284,293 |
| People per km² | 1,792 | 1,736 |
| Museums within 10 km | 12 | 14 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 22 | 63 |
| 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 La Spezia or Ljubljana somewhere new.