VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

La Spezia or Shanghai?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: La Spezia leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Shanghai 25: La Spezia leads by 54 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 3 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 32 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 47 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Shanghai 55: Shanghai 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 Shanghai.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

La Spezia
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife and shopping 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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaShanghai

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). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaShanghai
Official languageItalianPutonghua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation3 m4 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaShanghai
City population92,11924,870,895
People per km²1,7923,922
Museums within 10 km1245
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Shanghai 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.