La Spezia or Venice?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nature & day trips and 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 you want the sea at the edge of the centre, protected countryside to walk in and beaches within easy reach, with a summer that is drier than Venice's.
Choose Venice if you want museums and notable buildings packed into a walkable centre, about three times as many restaurants near it, and more to keep children occupied.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. La Spezia leads by 4 points.4
| La Spezia | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 69 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 4 |
| Beaches 10 km | 32 | 20 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 4 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 4 km |
Places to eat. Venice leads by 14 points.14
| La Spezia | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 45 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 235 | 750 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 11 | 10 |
Museums & heritage. Venice leads by 30 points.30
| La Spezia | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 72 |
| Museums within 10 km | 15 | 57 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 10 | 45 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 67 | 79 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 5 |
Nightlife. Venice leads by 11 points.11
| La Spezia | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 24 | 35 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 208 | 342 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 176 | 306 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 85 | 89 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 1 | 3 |
Nature & day trips. La Spezia leads by 35 points.35
| La Spezia | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 17 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 13 | 4 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 51 | 70 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 15 hectares |
Good for families. Venice leads by 37 points.37
| La Spezia | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 57 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 3 | 72 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 15 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Venice leads by 76 points.76
| La Spezia | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 7 | 83 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 6 | 464 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. La Spezia and Venice are level on 68.
| La Spezia | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. La Spezia leads by 4 points.4
| La Spezia | Venice | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 66 |
| Monthly daytime high | 11.4 °C to 30.3 °C | 8 °C to 30.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 32 mm to 132 mm | 36 mm to 106 mm |
| Dry months | 2 | 2 |
Where they differ
La Spezia is the better base for time outdoors: 13% of the land around it is protected against 4% around Venice, and it has about twice as much park space near the centre. The sea starts at the centre itself, and there are 32 beaches nearby.
Venice concentrates far more notable places within walking distance of its centre, along with many times as many tourist attractions and about three times as many museums, plus 3 theme parks within reach against La Spezia's 2.
Where they are alike
Both are coastal and swimmable on the same schedule: each has 4 months when the sea holds at 21°C or more, and both put beaches within reach of the centre.
Their weather and evenings line up too. Both top out at 30°C in the warmest month, and both have drier months when rainfall drops to 40mm or less. Nightlife is modest in both, and what there is sits close to the centre in each.
Which traveller are you?
Someone who wants museums and heritage on foot should take Venice: about three times as many museums as La Spezia, notable places packed within walking distance and 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against 2.
Walkers and swimmers are better served in La Spezia: 13% of the surrounding land is protected, there is roughly twice Venice's park space near the centre, and 32 beaches sit within reach of a coast that starts at the centre.
Families split. Venice has many times as many tourist attractions near its centre and more theme parks within reach; La Spezia answers with open green space and easier access to the water for younger swimmers.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information. Both are given the same national price level, so it says nothing about which city costs more, and the €155 daily budget beside it is a national estimate rather than a measurement of either place.
The beach and weather figures also compress. Both hold sea at 21°C or more for only 4 months, so swimming lands in the same summer weeks in both, and in La Spezia those are also the weeks with the least rain. Venice's density of notable places is the same trait that concentrates visitors into one small centre.
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). Venice: 1991-2020 normals, Treviso / S. Angelo (26.1 km from centre).
La Spezia is the stronger summer choice: June to August bring highs of 27-30°C, sea of 22-25°C and the year's lightest rain at 32-41mm. Autumn is the catch, with October and November at 125-132mm while the sea is still warm.
Venice works better outside high summer. Its autumn is drier, 89mm in October, and its winter months sit near 36-38mm, though highs of 8-10°C make that walking weather rather than swimming weather. Spring is the wetter side of the year there.
Getting there
| Flying from | La Spezia | Venice |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 5 m €48-62 PSA · 65 km | 2 h 0 m €46-119 1 stop VCE · 7 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 40 m €68-109 VCE · 7 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 35 m €23-126 TSF · 26 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 10 m no fares GOA · 86 km | 1 h 10 m €81-119 VCE · 7 km |
| CataniaCTA | 1 h 35 m €55-66 PSA · 65 km | 1 h 45 m no fares VCE · 7 km |
| PalermoPMO | 1 h 25 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 40 m €43-64 VCE · 7 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 5 m €88-193 PSA · 65 km | 2 h 20 m €102-159 VCE · 7 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 55 m €210-262 1 stop PSA · 65 km | 1 h 45 m €190-215 1 stop VCE · 7 km |
| BrusselsBRU, CRL | 1 h 45 m no fares PSA · 65 km | 1 h 40 m €44-65 TSF · 26 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 5 h 55 m no fares BLQ · 125 km | 5 h 55 m €366-421 2 stops VCE · 7 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 | Venice |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 2 m |
| Main airport | Pisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre81 non-stop destinations | Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)7 km from centre98 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | La Spezia | Venice |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 92,119 | 250,369 |
| People per km² | 1,792 | 602 |
| Museums within 10 km | 12 | 52 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 22 | 46 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 4 months | 4 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Spezia or Venice somewhere new.