VacationSelector
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

La Spezia or Washington DC?

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

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Washington DC for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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, Washington DC 12: La Spezia leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. La Spezia 58, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. La Spezia 40, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. La Spezia 28, Washington DC 57: Washington DC leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Spezia 79, Washington DC 64: La Spezia leads by 15 points.
Day trips. La Spezia 87, Washington DC 73: La Spezia leads by 14 points.
Good for families. La Spezia 48, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 25 points.
Getting around. La Spezia 70, Washington DC 72: Washington DC leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. La Spezia 35, Washington DC 52: Washington DC leads by 17 points.
Affordability. La Spezia 50, Washington DC 28: La Spezia leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Spezia 28, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 39 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Spezia 32, Washington DC 26: La Spezia leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Spezia and Washington DC.

Your match

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

La Spezia
51match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Washington DC
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
La SpeziaWashington DC

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). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa SpeziaWashington DC
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m72 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa SpeziaWashington DC
City population92,119689,545
People per km²1,7923,896
Museums within 10 km1298
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Spezia or Washington DC 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.