La Spezia or Naples?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and nightlife 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 Naples if you want a city that works on foot: museums, notable places and places to eat and drink clustered around the centre, plus 5 UNESCO-listed sites within day-trip reach.
Choose La Spezia if you want the sea at the end of the street and quieter country around it, with 13% of the surrounding land protected and a wider spread of kitchens for its size.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Naples leads by 3 points.3
| La Spezia | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 76 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 5 |
| Beaches 10 km | 32 | 29 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 1 km |
Places to eat. Naples leads by 15 points.15
| La Spezia | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 46 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 235 | 1,244 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 11 | 7 |
Museums & heritage. Naples leads by 36 points.36
| La Spezia | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 78 |
| Museums within 10 km | 15 | 84 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 10 | 68 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 67 | 81 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 5 |
Nightlife. Naples leads by 42 points.42
| La Spezia | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 24 | 66 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 208 | 1,389 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 176 | 964 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 85 | 69 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 1 | 40 |
Nature & day trips. La Spezia leads by 15 points.15
| La Spezia | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 37 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 13 | 7 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 51 | 56 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 41 hectares |
Good for families. Naples leads by 21 points.21
| La Spezia | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 41 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 3 | 11 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 41 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Naples leads by 71 points.71
| La Spezia | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 7 | 78 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 6 | 351 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. La Spezia and Naples are level on 68.
| La Spezia | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Naples leads by 3 points.3
| La Spezia | Naples | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 73 |
| Monthly daytime high | 11.4 °C to 30.3 °C | 13.1 °C to 31.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 32 mm to 132 mm | 17 mm to 159 mm |
| Dry months | 2 | 3 |
Where they differ
Naples has many times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, so a day there needs little planning. It also has many times as many museums, and 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against La Spezia's 2. Bars and clubs follow the same pattern, most of them central.
La Spezia's advantage is outward: 13% of the land around it is protected against 7% around Naples, and the sea starts at the centre, 0km away. Its restaurants cover a wider range of kitchens.
Where they are alike
Both are swimming cities. The sea is 0km from La Spezia's centre and 1km from Naples's, and both have a similar number of beaches within reach. August is the warmest water in both, at 25-26°C.
Their weather profiles are close too: hot, dry summers, mild winters and heavy autumn rain, with Naples marginally the warmer year-round. Neither is a family-first destination, and both offer moderate rather than deep choice for eating out.
Which traveller are you?
Someone who wants museums and old streets should take Naples. The concentration of notable places within walking distance means whole days without transport, and 5 UNESCO-listed sites sit within day-trip range.
A swimmer is well served by both, but La Spezia puts the sea 0km from the centre and has slightly more beaches nearby, while Naples holds swimmable water about a month longer.
Walkers should look at La Spezia, with 13% of the surrounding land protected. Families lean the other way: Naples has around three times as many central attractions, more park space and 3 theme parks within reach.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information: it is a national price level, identical for both by construction, and the €155 daily budget beside it is one estimate for the country rather than a measurement of either city. Nothing here tells you which trip costs more.
The beach and weather strengths need reading carefully too. The warmest sea comes in the months when both are busiest, and the wet season follows immediately, with 125-159mm across autumn. Naples's walkable concentration describes the centre only, while La Spezia's strength lies outside the city, which means time spent travelling.
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). Naples: 1991-2020 normals, Grazzanise (28.3 km from centre).
La Spezia is at its best from June to September, when highs run 27-30°C and the sea holds 22-25°C. Rain is lowest in midsummer. October and November bring 125-132mm, which ends the season abruptly.
Naples works across a longer stretch: May already reaches 24°C, and October stays warm enough to swim with noticeably less rain than La Spezia at the same point. High summer is drier there too, at 17-18mm. November, at 159mm, is the wettest month in either city.
Getting there
| Flying from | La Spezia | Naples |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 5 m €48-62 PSA · 65 km | 2 h 35 m €90-167 1 stop NAP · 7 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 2 h 10 m €108-170 NAP · 7 km |
| PalermoPMO | 1 h 25 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 0 m €39-94 NAP · 7 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 10 m no fares GOA · 86 km | 55 m no fares NAP · 7 km |
| CataniaCTA | 1 h 35 m €55-66 PSA · 65 km | 1 h 5 m €36-65 NAP · 7 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 10 m no fares NAP · 7 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 55 m €210-262 1 stop PSA · 65 km | 2 h 25 m €163-210 1 stop NAP · 7 km |
| CagliariCAG | 1 h 15 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 15 m no fares NAP · 7 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 5 m €88-193 PSA · 65 km | 2 h 25 m no fares NAP · 7 km |
| Sharm el SheikhSSH | 3 h 55 m no fares BLQ · 125 km | 3 h 25 m no fares NAP · 7 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 | Naples |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 3 m | 17 m |
| Main airport | Pisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre81 non-stop destinations | Naples International Airport (NAP)7 km from centre131 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | La Spezia | Naples |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 92,119 | 913,462 |
| People per km² | 1,792 | 7,676 |
| Museums within 10 km | 12 | 65 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 22 | 31 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 4 months | 5 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Spezia or Naples somewhere new.