VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Medellin?

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
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Medellin for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Medellin’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, Medellin 5: La Spezia leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia and Medellin are level on 58.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Medellin 42: Medellin leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Medellin 66: La Spezia leads by 13 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Medellin 58: La Spezia leads by 29 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Medellin 50: Medellin leads by 2 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Medellin 55: La Spezia leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Medellin 45: Medellin leads by 10 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Medellin 42: Medellin leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Medellin 30: La Spezia leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Medellin.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

La Spezia
51match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Medellin
51match

Wins on nightlife and prices 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

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaMedellin

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.

Medellin 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). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaMedellin
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation3 m1,405 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaMedellin
City population92,1192,529,403
People per km²1,7926,644
Museums within 10 km1214
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Medellin 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.