La Spezia or Siena?
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 and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and museums & heritage 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 matters: 32 beaches within reach, four months warm enough to swim, and protected country behind the coast for walking.
Choose Siena if you would rather walk between museums and historic buildings: far more notable places are packed into the centre, with more UNESCO-listed heritage within day-trip reach and more for children close by.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. La Spezia leads by 73 points.73
| La Spezia | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 32 | 0 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 64 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | — |
Places to eat. Siena leads by 1 points.1
| La Spezia | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 32 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 235 | 242 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 11 | 11 |
Museums & heritage. Siena leads by 29 points.29
| La Spezia | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 71 |
| Museums within 10 km | 15 | 55 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 10 | 51 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 67 | 93 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 5 |
Nightlife. La Spezia leads by 7 points.7
| La Spezia | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 24 | 17 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 208 | 142 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 176 | 119 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 85 | 84 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 1 | 1 |
Nature & day trips. La Spezia leads by 33 points.33
| La Spezia | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 19 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 13 | 3 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 51 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 29 hectares |
Good for families. Siena leads by 11 points.11
| La Spezia | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 31 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 3 | 13 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 29 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Siena leads by 43 points.43
| La Spezia | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 7 | 50 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 6 | 69 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. La Spezia and Siena are level on 68.
| La Spezia | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. La Spezia leads by 6 points.6
| La Spezia | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | 11.4 °C to 30.3 °C | 8.9 °C to 31.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 32 mm to 132 mm | 49 mm to 136 mm |
| Dry months | 2 | 0 |
Where they differ
La Spezia is the coastal option: 32 beaches nearby against none around Siena, and four months when the sea reaches 21°C or more. The countryside is wilder too, with 13% of the land protected against 3% around Siena, and two theme parks within reach.
Siena keeps nearly everything on foot: many times as many notable places within walking distance, about three times as many museums, and more UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach. Attractions near the centre are far more numerous, which matters with children.
Where they are alike
Eating out is where they sit closest: each has a similar number of restaurants near the centre and a comparable range of kitchens.
Nights are quiet in both, with a similar handful of clubs and drinking places clustered near the centre rather than spread out. Summer heat is close too, 30°C in La Spezia against 31°C in Siena, and both fall to 9-11°C in January.
Which traveller are you?
If swimming shapes the trip, take La Spezia: 32 beaches within reach and four months of sea at 21°C or more, with protected countryside behind the coast for walking days.
If you are here for museums and old streets, Siena is the clearer choice, with about three times as many museums, more UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and most of what you want on foot.
Families split by age: Siena offers many more attractions and park space close to the centre, all walkable, while La Spezia answers with two theme parks and the beaches for a longer stay.
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 city costs more; the €155 daily budget beside it is one national estimate, not a measurement of either place. Treat cost as untested here.
No nearby station records sunshine hours for Siena, so that figure is missing rather than low, and its monthly ratings rest on temperature and rainfall alone. La Spezia's beach strength is a summer trait: the four months of sea above 21°C are also the months everyone else travels, and the autumn that follows is its wettest.
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). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).
La Spezia suits June to September, when the sea runs 22-25°C and rainfall drops to 32-35mm at midsummer, so beach days and long evenings line up. The drawback is autumn: October and November are heavily wet, at 125-132mm.
Siena is the better pick in late spring and early autumn, when highs sit at 23-28°C and the walking is comfortable; September still brings 103mm, so pack for showers. March and November are wetter again, near 107-136mm, and midsummer is hot for touring on foot.
Getting there
| Flying from | La Spezia | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 5 m €48-62 PSA · 65 km | 2 h 5 m €180-199 1 stop FLR · 55 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 40 m €143-159 FLR · 55 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 86 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 10 m no fares GOA · 86 km | 55 m €136-139 1 stop FLR · 55 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 55 m €210-262 1 stop PSA · 65 km | 1 h 55 m €232-255 2 stops FLR · 55 km |
| CataniaCTA | 1 h 35 m €55-66 PSA · 65 km | 1 h 35 m €135-156 FLR · 55 km |
| PalermoPMO | 1 h 25 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 25 m no fares FLR · 55 km |
| BariBRI | 1 h 20 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 20 m no fares PSA · 86 km |
| BrindisiBDS | 1 h 30 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 30 m no fares PSA · 86 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 3 h 10 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 3 h 10 m no fares PSA · 86 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 | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 322 m |
| Main airport | Pisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre81 non-stop destinations | Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre36 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | La Spezia | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 92,119 | 52,812 |
| People per km² | 1,792 | 446 |
| Museums within 10 km | 12 | 29 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 22 | 25 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 4 months | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Spezia or Siena somewhere new.