VacationSelector
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station
The Colosseum, Rome
RomeThe Colosseum

Photos: Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rome by Tournasol7, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Melbourne 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 Melbourne for

  • families
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Rome for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • 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. Melbourne and Rome are level on 50.
Food & drink. Melbourne 75, Rome 82: Rome leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Melbourne 57, Rome 99: Rome leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Melbourne 75, Rome 58: Melbourne leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Melbourne 70, Rome 58: Melbourne leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Melbourne 62, Rome 92: Rome leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Melbourne 73, Rome 50: Melbourne leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Melbourne 76, Rome 60: Melbourne leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Melbourne 70, Rome 72: Rome leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Melbourne 31, Rome 38: Rome leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Melbourne 72, Rome 68: Melbourne leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Melbourne 54, Rome 40: Melbourne leads by 14 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Melbourne
64match

Wins on families and nightlife with your weighting.

Rome
64match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 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
MelbourneRome

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. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMelbourneRome
Official languageEnglishItalian
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number000112
Elevation31 m21 m
Main airportMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinationsRome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre242 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMelbourneRome
City population5,350,7052,748,109
People per km²5352,135
Museums within 10 km43178
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km17
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 Melbourne 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.