La Spezia or Turin?
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 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 you want swimming: 32 beaches within reach and a sea that stays above 21°C from June into September, with warmer days through the year and protected countryside behind the coast.
Choose Turin if you want a city to walk: many times more museums and restaurants, nightlife on a scale La Spezia has nothing like, and more attractions and park space for children.
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 | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 32 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 105 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | — |
Places to eat. Turin leads by 33 points.33
| La Spezia | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 64 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 235 | 1,198 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 11 | 21 |
Museums & heritage. Turin leads by 26 points.26
| La Spezia | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 68 |
| Museums within 10 km | 15 | 65 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 10 | 39 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 67 | 60 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
Nightlife. Turin leads by 42 points.42
| La Spezia | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 24 | 66 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 208 | 1,375 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 176 | 768 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 85 | 56 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 1 | 57 |
Nature & day trips. La Spezia leads by 19 points.19
| La Spezia | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 33 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 13 | 6 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 51 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 72 hectares |
Good for families. Turin leads by 33 points.33
| La Spezia | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 53 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 3 | 36 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 72 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Turin leads by 48 points.48
| La Spezia | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 7 | 55 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 6 | 92 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. La Spezia and Turin are level on 68.
| La Spezia | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | 11.4 °C to 30.3 °C | 7.1 °C to 28.5 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 32 mm to 132 mm | 44 mm to 127 mm |
| Dry months | 2 | 0 |
Where they differ
La Spezia is the coastal choice: 32 beaches nearby against Turin's one, and four months when the sea reaches 21°C or more, which Turin never manages. More of the land around it is protected countryside as well.
Turin puts far more within walking distance of the centre, from notable buildings to bars, clubs and restaurants spanning a much wider range of kitchens. It has many times as many museums, and 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against La Spezia's 2.
Where they are alike
Value is where they meet exactly: both carry the same national price level, the same €155 a day, so neither is the cheaper trip.
Weather is close as well. Both are warm in summer and mild rather than harsh in winter, La Spezia running 11-30°C across the year against Turin's 7-29°C. Each has open country within reach too, though more of the land around La Spezia is protected, while Turin has the larger park space near the centre.
Which traveller are you?
If the trip is built around swimming, La Spezia is the only workable answer: 32 beaches nearby and four months of sea at 21°C or more. Turin has no coast to speak of.
For museums, eating out and late nights, Turin: many times as many restaurants, bars and clubs, most of the notable sights within walking distance of the centre, and 4 UNESCO-listed places on day trips.
Families split. Turin has far more attractions near the centre and about three times as much park space; La Spezia answers with 2 theme parks within reach and beach days a child can spend all afternoon on.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure is a national price level, identical for both cities by construction, so the value comparison between La Spezia and Turin carries no information at all. The €155 a day sitting beside it is a single national estimate rather than a measurement of either city, and should not be read as a trait of one or the other.
No weather station near Turin records sunshine hours, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured rather than poor. And La Spezia's best swimming, with the sea at 25°C in August, falls in the same weeks as the driest, hottest, busiest part of its year.
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). Turin: 1991-2020 normals, Torino / Caselle (15.4 km from centre).
La Spezia is the better pick from June to September: daytime highs of 27-30°C, sea at 22-25°C, and the driest weeks of its year at 32-35mm in high summer. September still swims, but rainfall climbs to 102mm and the later autumn is wetter again.
Turin's window is June to August, with highs of 26-29°C and July drier than the months on either side. Its spring and autumn are wet enough that a shoulder-season trip is a gamble, and winters there are colder than on the coast.
Getting there
| Flying from | La Spezia | Turin |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 5 m €48-62 PSA · 65 km | 1 h 45 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 10 m no fares GOA · 86 km | 1 h 15 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| CataniaCTA | 1 h 35 m €55-66 PSA · 65 km | 1 h 55 m €41-129 TRN · 14 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 55 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| PalermoPMO | 1 h 25 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 45 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 20 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| BariBRI | 1 h 20 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 40 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| CagliariCAG | 1 h 15 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 25 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| BrindisiBDS | 1 h 30 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 50 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 3 h 10 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 3 h 5 m no fares TRN · 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 | Turin |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 239 m |
| Main airport | Pisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre81 non-stop destinations | Turin Airport (TRN)14 km from centre63 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | La Spezia | Turin |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 92,119 | 841,600 |
| People per km² | 1,792 | 6,474 |
| Museums within 10 km | 12 | 72 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 22 | 78 |
| 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 Turin somewhere new.