VacationSelector

La Spezia or Pisa?

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

Your match

Too close to call, 2 points apart

La Spezia
43
match

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

Pisa
45
match

Wins on sights concentration and good for families 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 sea is the point of the trip. The water starts at the centre of town, there are 32 beaches within reach, and the surrounding land is more heavily protected for walking days.

Choose Pisa if you would rather cover ground on foot. Far more notable places sit within walking distance of the centre, there are roughly twice the museums, and more to occupy children.

Scoreboard

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

La SpeziaPisa
Beaches & swimming. La Spezia leads by 52 points.52
La SpeziaPisa
Score7321
Swim season months44
Beaches 10 km321
Coast distance0 km10 km
Water distance0 km10 km
Places to eat. Pisa leads by 3 points.3
La SpeziaPisa
Score3134
Restaurants within 2 km of centre235379
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km119
Museums & heritage. Pisa leads by 13 points.13
La SpeziaPisa
Score4255
Museums within 10 km1527
Museums within 2 km of centre1022
Share of museums within 2 km %6781
Unesco sites within 50 km23
Nightlife. Pisa leads by 4 points.4
La SpeziaPisa
Score2428
Drinking venues within 4 km208232
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre176203
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %8588
Nightclubs within 4 km13
Nature & day trips. La Spezia leads by 13 points.13
La SpeziaPisa
Score5239
Protected land share 50 km %139
Landscape blanket share 50 km %00
Land share of disc %5165
Park area within 2 km23 hectares40 hectares
Good for families. Pisa leads by 27 points.27
La SpeziaPisa
Score2047
Tourist attractions within 2 km320
Park area within 2 km23 hectares40 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km22
Sights concentration. Pisa leads by 40 points.40
La SpeziaPisa
Score747
Notable places within 2 km658
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. La Spezia and Pisa are level on 68.
La SpeziaPisa
Score6868
Price level global64.964.9
Daily budget€155€155
Year-round weather. La Spezia and Pisa are level on 70.
La SpeziaPisa
Score7070
Monthly daytime high11.4 °C to 30.3 °C11.4 °C to 30.3 °C
Monthly rainfall32 mm to 132 mm32 mm to 132 mm
Dry months22
0255075100

Where they differ

La Spezia puts you on the water: the sea is 0km from the centre against 10km in Pisa, and it has 32 beaches nearby, where Pisa has barely any. More of the land around it is protected, 13% against 9%, and its restaurants cover a wider range of kitchens.

Pisa concentrates things: many times more notable places within walking distance, about twice as many museums, and 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against 2. It also has twice as many restaurants near the centre and far more for families.

Where they are alike

The weather is the same story in both: daytime highs run about 11-30°C across the year, the sea reaches 21°C or more for four months, and each has the same short dry spell at 40mm or less.

Eating and drinking are close too. Pisa has more restaurants near the centre, La Spezia a wider spread of kitchens, and both have similar numbers of drinking places. Pisa has more nightclubs, though in neither city is nightlife the main event.

Which traveller are you?

Swimmers should take La Spezia: the sea starts at the centre, 32 beaches lie within reach, and the water stays at 21°C or more for four months.

Short-break culture travellers are better off in Pisa. Far more notable places sit within walking distance, there are about twice as many museums, and 3 UNESCO-listed places lie within day-trip reach, so little of the day goes on transport.

Families with children also lean to Pisa, with many more attractions near the centre and roughly twice the park space. Both have 2 theme parks within reach, so that part is a draw.

What the numbers don't tell you

The value figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so it says nothing about which trip costs less. The €155 daily budget is one national estimate, not a measurement of La Spezia or Pisa.

La Spezia's beach strength peaks in the same summer months most people travel, and September, with the sea still at 23°C, is also when rainfall climbs to 102mm. The two share one climate record, so weather cannot break the tie; the difference is in what each city offers when you get there.

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
Pisa
11
13
16
18
23
27
30
30
26
21
16
12
Sea temperature, °C
La Spezia
14
13
14
15
18
22
24
25
23
20
18
16
Pisa
14
13
14
15
18
22
24
25
23
20
18
16
Rainfall, mm
La Spezia
68
58
59
65
63
41
32
35
102
125
132
95
Pisa
68
58
59
65
63
41
32
35
102
125
132
95
Daylight, hours per day
La Spezia
9
10
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Pisa
9
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
La Spezia
4
4
6
6
8
9
11
10
7
5
4
3
Pisa
4
4
6
6
8
9
11
10
7
5
4
3

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). Pisa: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (3.9 km from centre).

WorseBetter

La Spezia is at its best from June to September, when the sea sits at 22-25°C and highs run 26-30°C. July and August are also the driest months of the year, at 32-35mm, so beach days are rarely interrupted.

Pisa reads better in April, May and October, when 18-23°C makes a day on foot comfortable. Its wet stretch, 102-132mm from September to November, costs less here than in La Spezia, since museums and the walkable centre work in rain.

Getting there

Flying fromLa SpeziaPisa
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
2 h 5 m
€48-62
PSA · 65 km
2 h 5 m
€48-62
PSA · 4 km
TiranaTIA
1 h 35 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
1 h 35 m
no fares
PSA · 4 km
PalermoPMO
1 h 25 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
1 h 25 m
no fares
PSA · 4 km
RomeFCO, CIA
1 h 10 m
no fares
GOA · 86 km
55 m
€136-139
1 stop
FLR · 65 km
CataniaCTA
1 h 35 m
€55-66
PSA · 65 km
1 h 35 m
€55-66
PSA · 4 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 40 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
1 h 40 m
no fares
PSA · 4 km
CagliariCAG
1 h 15 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
1 h 15 m
no fares
PSA · 4 km
BrusselsBRU, CRL
1 h 45 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
1 h 45 m
no fares
PSA · 4 km
BariBRI
1 h 20 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
1 h 20 m
no fares
PSA · 4 km
MarrakechRAK
3 h 10 m
no fares
PSA · 65 km
3 h 10 m
no fares
PSA · 4 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 SpeziaPisa
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 m4 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre81 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)4 km from centre81 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaPisa
City population92,11988,737
People per km²1,792479
Museums within 10 km1227
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Distinct cuisines in the centre2229
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months4 months

Where else could you go?

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