VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

La Spezia or Madrid?

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 La Spezia for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Madrid for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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. La Spezia 60, Madrid 5: La Spezia leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Madrid 80: Madrid leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Madrid 86: Madrid leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Madrid 85: Madrid leads by 57 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Madrid 60: La Spezia leads by 19 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Madrid 89: Madrid leads by 2 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Madrid 68: Madrid leads by 20 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Madrid 84: Madrid leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Madrid 75: Madrid leads by 40 points.
Affordability. La Spezia and Madrid are level on 50.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Madrid 77: Madrid leads by 49 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Madrid 36: Madrid leads by 4 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Madrid.

Your match

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

La Spezia
51match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

La Spezia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
20 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaMadrid

Where the figures come from

La Spezia's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

La Spezia 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre). Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaMadrid
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation3 m663 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaMadrid
City population92,1193,506,730
People per km²1,7925,801
Museums within 10 km1288
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km24
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Spezia or Madrid 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.