Naples or Siena?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and nightlife with your weighting.
Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Naples if you want coast and city in the same trip: 29 beaches within reach, five months of sea warm enough to swim, and far more notable places, bars and clubs packed close to the centre.
Choose Siena if you want a town of about 52,800 people you can cross on foot, a wider range of kitchens, and quiet evenings rather than a night-out city.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Naples leads by 76 points.76
| Naples | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 5 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 29 | 0 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 64 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | — |
Places to eat. Naples leads by 14 points.14
| Naples | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 32 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,244 | 242 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 7 | 11 |
Museums & heritage. Naples leads by 7 points.7
| Naples | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 78 | 71 |
| Museums within 10 km | 84 | 55 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 68 | 51 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 81 | 93 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 5 | 5 |
Nightlife. Naples leads by 49 points.49
| Naples | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 17 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,389 | 142 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 964 | 119 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 69 | 84 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 40 | 1 |
Nature & day trips. Naples leads by 18 points.18
| Naples | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 37 | 19 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 7 | 3 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 56 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 41 hectares | 29 hectares |
Good for families. Naples leads by 10 points.10
| Naples | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 41 | 31 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 13 |
| Park area within 2 km | 41 hectares | 29 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Naples leads by 28 points.28
| Naples | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 78 | 50 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 351 | 69 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Naples and Siena are level on 68.
| Naples | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Naples leads by 9 points.9
| Naples | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | 13.1 °C to 31.4 °C | 8.9 °C to 31.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 17 mm to 159 mm | 49 mm to 136 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 0 |
Where they differ
Naples is the only one of the two with a coast: 29 beaches nearby and five months when the sea sits at 21°C or more. It also has many times as many drinking places and nightclubs, most of them central, and many times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre.
Siena has the narrower lead. Its kitchens cover a much wider range of cuisines, even though Naples has many times more restaurants near the centre, and it packs somewhat more tourist attractions into its centre.
Where they are alike
Heritage is where the two come closest. Both sit within day-trip reach of 5 UNESCO-listed places, and both give a visitor several days of museums and historic fabric; Naples holds about twice as many museums, but Siena's are close together.
Summer weather and family appeal are close too: both reach 31°C in the hottest month and are at their coolest in January, and neither is built mainly around attractions for children.
Which traveller are you?
If you want a swimming holiday with a city attached, Naples is the only option here: 29 beaches nearby, sea at 26°C in August, and dense sightseeing within walking distance when you come off the sand.
If you want heritage on foot and quiet evenings, Siena fits: a compact centre with tourist attractions close together, UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and very little in the way of clubs or late bars.
If you are travelling with children, Naples has more to work with: 3 theme parks within reach, more park space near the centre, and the beaches, though Siena's centre packs more attractions into a shorter walk.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information. The figure behind it is a national price level, identical for both by construction, and the €155 daily budget beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city. Treat neither as the cheaper trip.
No weather station near Siena records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low, and its monthly picture rests on temperature and rainfall alone. Naples's coastal strength also concentrates into the same few months: the sea only reaches swimming warmth when the city is at its hottest, 31°C, and that is when beaches are busiest.
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. Naples: 1991-2020 normals, Grazzanise (28.3 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).
Naples is at its best from June to September: highs of 28-31°C, sea at 23-26°C, and midsummer rain falling to 17-18mm, which makes swimming and beach days dependable rather than a gamble. Shoulder months stay mild but the sea is too cool for swimming.
Siena is at its strongest in June and again in September, with highs of 26-28°C and the summer heat easing. Spring is wetter there, up to 107mm in March, and both cities turn wet in late autumn, so November suits neither.
Getting there
| Flying from | Naples | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 10 m €108-170 NAP · 7 km | 1 h 40 m €143-159 FLR · 55 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 35 m €90-167 1 stop NAP · 7 km | 2 h 5 m €180-199 1 stop FLR · 55 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 30 m €35-109 NAP · 7 km | 1 h 5 m no fares EBA · 108 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 25 m €163-210 1 stop NAP · 7 km | 1 h 55 m €232-255 2 stops FLR · 55 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 50 m €103-165 1 stop NAP · 7 km | 1 h 35 m €113-168 FLR · 55 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 10 m no fares NAP · 7 km | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 86 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 55 m no fares NAP · 7 km | 55 m €136-139 1 stop FLR · 55 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 40 m €157-224 1 stop NAP · 7 km | 1 h 15 m no fares FLR · 55 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 25 m no fares NAP · 7 km | 2 h 10 m no fares FLR · 55 km |
| Sharm el SheikhSSH | 3 h 25 m no fares NAP · 7 km | 3 h 45 m no fares RMI · 129 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 2026-08 to 2026-10, 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 | Naples | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 17 m | 322 m |
| Main airport | Naples International Airport (NAP)7 km from centre131 non-stop destinations | Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre36 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Naples | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 913,462 | 52,812 |
| People per km² | 7,676 | 446 |
| Museums within 10 km | 65 | 29 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 5 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 31 | 25 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 5 months | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Naples or Siena somewhere new.