La Spezia or Rome?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming with your weighting.
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 swimming is the point of the trip. The sea is at the centre, with 32 beaches nearby, and the town stays small.
Choose Rome if you want museums, evenings out and a lot of walkable sights in one place, plus more for children. It suits a trip built around what you can reach on foot rather than around the water.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. La Spezia leads by 40 points.40
| La Spezia | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 33 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 5 |
| Beaches 10 km | 32 | 3 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 24 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 24 km |
Places to eat. Rome leads by 29 points.29
| La Spezia | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 60 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 235 | 2,241 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 11 | 10 |
Museums & heritage. Rome leads by 42 points.42
| La Spezia | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 84 |
| Museums within 10 km | 15 | 161 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 10 | 79 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 67 | 49 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 7 |
Nightlife. Rome leads by 50 points.50
| La Spezia | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 24 | 74 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 208 | 2,022 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 176 | 912 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 85 | 45 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 1 | 85 |
Nature & day trips. Rome leads by 18 points.18
| La Spezia | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 70 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 13 | 19 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 51 | 78 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 172 hectares |
Good for families. Rome leads by 66 points.66
| La Spezia | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 86 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 3 | 126 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 172 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 4 |
Sights concentration. Rome leads by 92 points.92
| La Spezia | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 7 | 99 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 6 | 1,125 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. La Spezia and Rome are level on 68.
| La Spezia | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Rome leads by 1 points.1
| La Spezia | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 71 |
| Monthly daytime high | 11.4 °C to 30.3 °C | 12 °C to 31.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 32 mm to 132 mm | 21 mm to 114 mm |
| Dry months | 2 | 3 |
Where they differ
La Spezia puts the sea at the centre of town, with 32 beaches within reach against Rome's 3, where the coast is 24km out. Its museums and bars, though few, sit tightly around the centre.
Rome has many times as many notable places within walking distance, so days need less planning. It is the stronger family trip, with far more attractions and park space near the centre and 4 theme parks within reach against 2. Nights out are wider in choice, though only about half the venues are central.
Where they are alike
Weather is the closest match. Both run the same shape of year, with highs of 11-30°C in La Spezia and 12-31°C in Rome, and a sea peaking at 25°C in both.
Nature and eating out are not far apart either: both have a fair share of protected land around them, 19% around Rome and 13% around La Spezia, and both offer a similar range of kitchens, even though Rome has many more restaurants near its centre.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone whose trip is built around swimming should take La Spezia: the sea starts at the centre and 32 beaches sit close by, against a coast 24km out from Rome and far fewer of them.
Families do better in Rome, which has many more attractions and much more park space near the centre, plus 4 theme parks within reach against La Spezia's 2, so a spare afternoon is easier to fill.
A traveller after museums, heritage and late evenings belongs in Rome: notable places cluster within walking distance of the centre, and there are many times more places to drink and to eat than in La Spezia.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information. That measure 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. Neither can be called the cheaper trip on this data.
La Spezia's beach strength is real but narrow in time: the warm-sea window is short and falls in the hottest weather, at the peak of the season. The milder months either side are also the wettest, reaching 132mm in November, so a quieter trip means rain rather than swimming.
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). Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre).
La Spezia is at its best from June to August, when highs sit at 27-30°C, the sea is warm enough to swim and rain falls to 32-41mm. September stays warm but wet, at 102mm, and autumn is wetter still.
Rome holds up longer at either end of summer: May reaches 24°C and September 27°C, and September is the drier of the two cities then, at 70mm. Winter in both is mild but sits in the wettest stretch of the year.
Getting there
| Flying from | La Spezia | Rome |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 5 m €48-62 PSA · 65 km | 2 h 20 m €76-143 1 stop FCO · 23 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 2 h 0 m €91-122 FCO · 23 km |
| CataniaCTA | 1 h 35 m €55-66 PSA · 65 km | 1 h 20 m €60-112 FCO · 23 km |
| PalermoPMO | 1 h 25 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 10 m €38-50 FCO · 23 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 25 m €30-91 FCO · 23 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 5 m €88-193 PSA · 65 km | 2 h 15 m €98-119 FCO · 23 km |
| CagliariCAG | 1 h 15 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 10 m €116-125 FCO · 23 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 25 m no fares GOA · 86 km | 1 h 40 m €44-74 FCO · 23 km |
| BariBRI | 1 h 20 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 5 m €36-62 FCO · 23 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 3 h 10 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 3 h 10 m no fares CIA · 14 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 | Rome |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 21 m |
| Main airport | Pisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre81 non-stop destinations | Rome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre230 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | La Spezia | Rome |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 92,119 | 2,748,109 |
| People per km² | 1,792 | 2,135 |
| Museums within 10 km | 12 | 177 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 7 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 22 | 65 |
| 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 Rome somewhere new.