VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
The Colosseum, Rome
RomeThe Colosseum

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; Rome by Tournasol7, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Lisbon or Rome?

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 Lisbon for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Rome for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Rome’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. Lisbon and Rome are level on 50.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, Rome 82: Rome leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, Rome 99: Rome leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, Rome 58: Lisbon leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, Rome 58: Lisbon leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, Rome 92: Rome leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, Rome 50: Lisbon leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, Rome 60: Lisbon leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, Rome 72: Rome leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, Rome 38: Lisbon leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, Rome 68: Rome leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, Rome 40: Rome leads by 4 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lisbon and Rome.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Lisbon
65match

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

Rome
64match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Rome in July

31 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
LisbonRome

Where the figures come from

Rome's sunshine is measured 31 km from the centre, at Vigna Di Valle.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonRome
Official languagePortugueseItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation100 m21 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsRome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre242 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonRome
City population545,7962,748,109
People per km²5,4532,135
Museums within 10 km80178
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km37
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lisbon or Rome 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.