VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Ottawa?

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

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Ottawa for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Ottawa’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, Ottawa 35: La Spezia leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Ottawa 45: La Spezia leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Ottawa 35: Ottawa leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Ottawa 68: La Spezia leads by 11 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Ottawa 55: La Spezia leads by 32 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 20 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Ottawa 62: La Spezia leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Ottawa 40: Ottawa leads by 5 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Ottawa 40: La Spezia leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Ottawa 52: Ottawa leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Ottawa.

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 day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Ottawa
51match

Wins on live music and the arts and wellness 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

Ottawa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaOttawa

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). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaOttawa
Official languageItalianFrench, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m70 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaOttawa
City population92,1191,017,449
People per km²1,792366
Museums within 10 km1220
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Ottawa 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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.