VacationSelector
La Major cathedral from the harbour, Marseille
MarseilleLa Major cathedral from the harbour
The Colosseum, Rome
RomeThe Colosseum

Photos: Marseille by Charlotte Noblet, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Rome by Tournasol7, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Marseille 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 Marseille for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Rome for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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. Marseille 72, Rome 50: Marseille leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Marseille 67, Rome 82: Rome leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Marseille 63, Rome 99: Rome leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Marseille 57, Rome 58: Rome leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marseille 83, Rome 58: Marseille leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Marseille 86, Rome 92: Rome leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Marseille and Rome are level on 50.
Getting around. Marseille 57, Rome 60: Rome leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Marseille 47, Rome 72: Rome leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Marseille 45, Rome 38: Marseille leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marseille 56, Rome 68: Rome leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marseille 37, Rome 40: Rome leads by 3 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Marseille
60match

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

Rome
Best match
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.

Marseille in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °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
MarseilleRome

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. Marseille: 1991-2020 normals, Marseille / Marignane (20.6 km from centre). Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarseilleRome
Official languageFrenchItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation0 m21 m
Main airportMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)21 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsRome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre242 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarseilleRome
City population886,0402,748,109
People per km²3,6832,135
Museums within 10 km27178
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km17
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Marseille 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.