VacationSelector

La Spezia or Palermo?

Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Your match

La Spezia
43
match

Wins on nature & day trips and beaches & swimming with your weighting.

Palermo
✓ Best match
55
match

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 La Spezia if the trip is built around water and open country: the sea begins at the centre, 32 beaches lie nearby, and a far larger share of the land around it is protected.

Choose Palermo if you want a city that works on foot, with what there is to see close together, more restaurants and museums, and evenings out that do not require a drive.

Scoreboard

Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.

La SpeziaPalermo
Beaches & swimming. La Spezia leads by 6 points.6
La SpeziaPalermo
Score7367
Swim season months45
Beaches 10 km3213
Coast distance0 km1 km
Water distance0 km1 km
Places to eat. Palermo leads by 19 points.19
La SpeziaPalermo
Score3150
Restaurants within 2 km of centre235807
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km1113
Museums & heritage. Palermo leads by 8 points.8
La SpeziaPalermo
Score4250
Museums within 10 km1532
Museums within 2 km of centre1026
Share of museums within 2 km %6781
Unesco sites within 50 km21
Nightlife. Palermo leads by 29 points.29
La SpeziaPalermo
Score2453
Drinking venues within 4 km208799
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre176515
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %8564
Nightclubs within 4 km116
Nature & day trips. La Spezia leads by 16 points.16
La SpeziaPalermo
Score5236
Protected land share 50 km %134
Landscape blanket share 50 km %00
Land share of disc %5145
Park area within 2 km23 hectares63 hectares
Good for families. Palermo leads by 21 points.21
La SpeziaPalermo
Score2041
Tourist attractions within 2 km316
Park area within 2 km23 hectares63 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km20
Sights concentration. Palermo leads by 50 points.50
La SpeziaPalermo
Score757
Notable places within 2 km6104
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. La Spezia and Palermo are level on 68.
La SpeziaPalermo
Score6868
Price level global64.964.9
Daily budget€155€155
Year-round weather. Palermo leads by 7 points.7
La SpeziaPalermo
Score7077
Monthly daytime high11.4 °C to 30.3 °C12.6 °C to 27.8 °C
Monthly rainfall32 mm to 132 mm4 mm to 71 mm
Dry months27
0255075100

Where they differ

La Spezia's strengths lie beyond the streets. The sea meets the centre at 0km, with 32 beaches nearby against Palermo's 13, and 13% of the land around it is protected against 4%. Two theme parks sit within reach; Palermo has none.

Palermo is the better city on foot: far more notable places within walking distance, about three times as many bars and many more nightclubs, three times as many restaurants near the centre, and many more attractions and park space for families.

Where they are alike

Swimming is the common ground. Both sit on the water, the sea 0km from La Spezia's centre and 1km from Palermo's, and both peak in August, when the sea reaches 25°C at La Spezia and 27°C at Palermo. Beach days are straightforward from either base.

The pair are also close on climate and heritage: both run hot in summer and keep January highs of 11-13°C, and both have museums in town plus UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.

Which traveller are you?

A traveller who wants to walk out of the door and find things should take Palermo: notable places cluster within walking distance of the centre, with more restaurants and museums, and bars and clubs in the same area.

Swimmers and walkers are better off in La Spezia, with 32 beaches nearby, the sea at the centre, 13% of the surrounding land protected and two UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.

Families lean to Palermo for variety close to base, with many more attractions and about three times the park space near the centre. La Spezia answers only if its two theme parks are the draw.

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 a day beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city, so neither can be called the cheaper trip on this evidence.

La Spezia's beach and nature advantages are counted outside the centre, so acting on them means transport, and its warmest, driest months are also the busiest ones. Its sea stays warm for fewer months than Palermo's, and autumn rainfall of 102-132mm shortens the season further at the other end.

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.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
La Spezia
11
13
16
18
23
27
30
30
26
21
16
12
Palermo
13
13
14
16
20
24
28
28
25
21
17
14
Sea temperature, °C
La Spezia
14
13
14
15
18
22
24
25
23
20
18
16
Palermo
15
14
15
16
19
22
26
27
25
23
20
17
Rainfall, mm
La Spezia
68
58
59
65
63
41
32
35
102
125
132
95
Palermo
48
45
35
35
18
9
4
11
37
67
71
69
Daylight, hours per day
La Spezia
9
10
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Palermo
10
11
12
13
14
15
15
14
13
11
10
10
Sunshine, hours per day
La Spezia
4
4
6
6
8
9
11
10
7
5
4
3
Palermo
4
5
6
7
9
10
11
10
8
7
5
4

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). Palermo: 1961-1990 normals, Ustica (66.8 km from centre).

WorseBetter

La Spezia works best from May to August. Highs climb to 30°C, and July and August are its driest months at 32-35mm. September to November are its wettest, at 102-132mm, so autumn trips risk washed-out days.

Palermo holds the longer season. June to September sit near 28°C with very little rain, 4mm in July, and the sea holds 25-27°C from July into September. Winter is also steadier there, with January highs of 13°C against La Spezia's 11°C.

Getting there

Flying fromLa SpeziaPalermo
RomeFCO, CIA
1 h 10 m
no fares
GOA · 86 km
1 h 10 m
€40-52
PMO · 25 km
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
2 h 5 m
€48-62
PSA · 65 km
2 h 50 m
no fares
PMO · 25 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 40 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
2 h 25 m
€101-135
PMO · 25 km
NaplesNAP
1 h 20 m
no fares
GOA · 86 km
1 h 0 m
€42-84
PMO · 25 km
CagliariCAG
1 h 15 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
1 h 5 m
no fares
PMO · 25 km
BrusselsBRU, CRL
1 h 45 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
2 h 30 m
€106-165
1 stop
PMO · 25 km
BariBRI
1 h 20 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
1 h 10 m
no fares
PMO · 25 km
BerlinBER
1 h 50 m
€119-200
1 stop
PSA · 65 km
2 h 30 m
€135-181
1 stop
PMO · 25 km
BrindisiBDS
1 h 30 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
1 h 15 m
no fares
PMO · 25 km
Tel Aviv YafoTLV
3 h 35 m
no fares
BLQ · 125 km
3 h 10 m
€151-346
1 stop
PMO · 25 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

MeasureLa SpeziaPalermo
Official languageItalianItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation3 m14 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre81 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre103 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaPalermo
City population92,119630,167
People per km²1,7923,924
Museums within 10 km1242
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Distinct cuisines in the centre2233
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Spezia or Palermo somewhere new.

Browse every destination we have measured

Sources

© OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence. Place counts include data from Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0), assembled from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and other providers. Notable-place counts from Wikidata (CC0), weighted by Wikipedia language editions. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-08-31. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.