VacationSelector

Pisa or Venice?

Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Your match

Pisa
45
match

Wins on nature & day trips and year-round weather with your weighting.

Venice
✓ Best match
57
match

Wins on beaches & swimming and sights concentration with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

The verdict

Choose Pisa if you want countryside and green space within reach, with more protected land around the city, more park space near the centre and a drier midsummer.

Choose Venice if you want the sights packed within walking distance, about twice as many museums, and swimming close at hand: the sea sits 4km from the centre, with 20 beaches nearby.

Scoreboard

Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.

PisaVenice
Beaches & swimming. Venice leads by 48 points.48
PisaVenice
Score2169
Swim season months44
Beaches 10 km120
Coast distance10 km4 km
Water distance10 km4 km
Places to eat. Venice leads by 11 points.11
PisaVenice
Score3445
Restaurants within 2 km of centre379750
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km910
Museums & heritage. Venice leads by 17 points.17
PisaVenice
Score5572
Museums within 10 km2757
Museums within 2 km of centre2245
Share of museums within 2 km %8179
Unesco sites within 50 km35
Nightlife. Venice leads by 7 points.7
PisaVenice
Score2835
Drinking venues within 4 km232342
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre203306
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %8889
Nightclubs within 4 km33
Nature & day trips. Pisa leads by 22 points.22
PisaVenice
Score3917
Protected land share 50 km %94
Landscape blanket share 50 km %00
Land share of disc %6570
Park area within 2 km40 hectares15 hectares
Good for families. Venice leads by 10 points.10
PisaVenice
Score4757
Tourist attractions within 2 km2072
Park area within 2 km40 hectares15 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km23
Sights concentration. Venice leads by 36 points.36
PisaVenice
Score4783
Notable places within 2 km58464
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Pisa and Venice are level on 68.
PisaVenice
Score6868
Price level global64.964.9
Daily budget€155€155
Year-round weather. Pisa leads by 4 points.4
PisaVenice
Score7066
Monthly daytime high11.4 °C to 30.3 °C8 °C to 30.4 °C
Monthly rainfall32 mm to 132 mm36 mm to 106 mm
Dry months22
0255075100

Where they differ

Pisa is the better base for getting out of town: 9% of the land around it is protected against 4% around Venice, and it has roughly three times as much park space near the centre, so days off the pavement are easier to arrange.

Venice concentrates. Many times as many notable places sit within walking distance of its centre, and swimming is simpler, the sea 4km away against Pisa's 10km, with 20 beaches nearby where Pisa has 1.

Where they are alike

Both share the same summer ceiling, with highs of 30°C in August and 4 months of sea at 21°C or more.

After dark they are close too: a similar number of nightclubs in each, and in both the drinking places sit mostly near the centre. Families are catered for either way, with theme parks within reach of both, though Venice leans on attractions near the centre and Pisa on park space.

Which traveller are you?

If swimming shapes the trip, take Venice. The sea is 4km from the centre, with 20 beaches nearby rather than Pisa's 1, and it is at its warmest in late summer.

Museum-led visitors are better served in Venice too: about twice as many museums, 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Pisa's 3, and short walking distances between them.

Anyone travelling with children who need space to run, or planning walks and country days, does better from Pisa, which has more protected land around it and about three times the park space near the centre.

What the numbers don't tell you

The value figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so it says nothing at all about choosing between them. The €155 daily budget beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city, and neither can be called the cheaper trip on this evidence.

Venice's swimming advantage is a summer one: its driest months are also its coldest, at 8°C. Pisa has the opposite trap, its driest months being its hottest, at 30°C, while its wettest stretch, September to November, still has sea warm enough to swim in.

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.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Pisa
11
13
16
18
23
27
30
30
26
21
16
12
Venice
8
10
15
19
24
28
30
30
25
19
13
8
Sea temperature, °C
Pisa
14
13
14
15
18
22
24
25
23
20
18
16
Venice
10
9
10
14
18
23
25
26
23
19
16
13
Rainfall, mm
Pisa
68
58
59
65
63
41
32
35
102
125
132
95
Venice
38
36
54
78
91
75
65
74
106
89
95
60
Daylight, hours per day
Pisa
9
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Venice
9
10
12
14
15
16
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Pisa
4
4
6
6
8
9
11
10
7
5
4
3
Venice
3
4
5
6
7
8
10
9
6
4
3
3

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Pisa: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (3.9 km from centre). Venice: 1991-2020 normals, Treviso / S. Angelo (26.1 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Pisa's clearest window is June to August, when highs run 27-30°C and rainfall falls to 32-41mm. It turns wet from September, at 102mm, and stays that way through October and November.

Venice peaks earlier and briefly. May and June bring 24-28°C but also 75-91mm of rain, so showers are part of the plan. Its driest months are January and February, around 36-38mm, though highs of 8°C leave little reason to be outdoors.

Getting there

Flying fromPisaVenice
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
2 h 5 m
€48-62
PSA · 4 km
2 h 0 m
€46-119
1 stop
VCE · 7 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 40 m
no fares
PSA · 4 km
1 h 40 m
€68-109
VCE · 7 km
TiranaTIA
1 h 35 m
no fares
PSA · 4 km
1 h 35 m
€23-126
TSF · 26 km
CataniaCTA
1 h 35 m
€55-66
PSA · 4 km
1 h 45 m
no fares
VCE · 7 km
RomeFCO, CIA
55 m
€136-139
1 stop
FLR · 65 km
1 h 10 m
€81-119
VCE · 7 km
PalermoPMO
1 h 25 m
no fares
PSA · 4 km
1 h 40 m
€43-64
VCE · 7 km
MadridMAD
2 h 5 m
€88-193
PSA · 4 km
2 h 20 m
€102-159
VCE · 7 km
AmsterdamAMS
1 h 55 m
€210-262
1 stop
PSA · 4 km
1 h 45 m
€190-215
1 stop
VCE · 7 km
BrusselsBRU, CRL
1 h 45 m
no fares
PSA · 4 km
1 h 40 m
€44-65
TSF · 26 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
5 h 55 m
no fares
BLQ · 115 km
5 h 55 m
€366-421
2 stops
VCE · 7 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 2026-09 to 2026-09, 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

MeasurePisaVenice
Official languageItalianItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation4 m2 m
Main airportPisa International Airport (PSA)4 km from centre81 non-stop destinationsVenice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)7 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePisaVenice
City population88,737250,369
People per km²479602
Museums within 10 km2752
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km35
Distinct cuisines in the centre2946
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Pisa or Venice somewhere new.

Browse every destination we have measured

Sources

© OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence. Place counts include data from Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0), assembled from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and other providers. Notable-place counts from Wikidata (CC0), weighted by Wikipedia language editions. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-08-31. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.