Rome or Florence?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on good for families and beaches & swimming 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 Florence if you want a compact heritage city where the major museums sit close together, the range of kitchens is wide, and real summer heat, up to 33°C in August, is part of the appeal.
Choose Rome if you are travelling with children, want beaches and sea warm enough to swim in late summer, protected countryside within easy reach, and far more to cover on foot.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Rome leads by 33 points.33
| Rome | Florence | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 33 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 5 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 3 | 0 |
| Coast distance | 24 km | 78 km |
| Water distance | 24 km | — |
Places to eat. Rome leads by 1 points.1
| Rome | Florence | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 59 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 2,241 | 1,299 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 10 | 15 |
Museums & heritage. Rome leads by 2 points.2
| Rome | Florence | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 84 | 82 |
| Museums within 10 km | 161 | 132 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 79 | 93 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 49 | 70 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 7 | 4 |
Nightlife. Rome leads by 18 points.18
| Rome | Florence | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 56 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 2,022 | 818 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 912 | 599 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 45 | 73 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 85 | 34 |
Nature & day trips. Rome leads by 32 points.32
| Rome | Florence | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 38 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 19 | 9 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 2 |
| Land share of disc % | 78 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 172 hectares | 86 hectares |
Good for families. Rome leads by 34 points.34
| Rome | Florence | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 86 | 52 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 126 | 30 |
| Park area within 2 km | 172 hectares | 86 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 4 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Rome leads by 24 points.24
| Rome | Florence | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 99 | 75 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 1,125 | 292 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Rome and Florence are level on 68.
| Rome | Florence | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Rome leads by 3 points.3
| Rome | Florence | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 68 |
| Monthly daytime high | 12 °C to 31.4 °C | 10.8 °C to 32.7 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 21 mm to 114 mm | 32 mm to 132 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 2 |
Where they differ
Florence's museums cluster tightly around the centre, and its bars and clubs are almost all central, where in Rome only about half are. Its kitchens cover a wider range of cuisines, and it runs warmer, 11-33°C across the year against Rome's 12-31°C.
Rome suits families better: many more attractions near the centre, about twice the park space, and 4 theme parks where Florence has none. It has 3 beaches nearby, 19% protected land around it against 9%, and about three times as many notable places within walking distance.
Where they are alike
Eating out is where the two are closest. Both put plenty of restaurants within reach of the centre, Rome about twice as many as Florence, while Florence covers a wider range of kitchens.
Both are heavyweight heritage cities with UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, 7 for Rome and 4 for Florence, and the weather runs nearly in parallel: January highs of 11-12°C, August highs of 31-33°C, and a dry midsummer in both.
Which traveller are you?
Travelling with children: Rome. It has many times as many attractions near the centre, about twice the park space, 4 theme parks within reach, and 3 beaches nearby for a day out of the city.
Museum-focused on a short trip: Florence. Rome holds somewhat more, but Florence's are packed tightly around the centre, so a two or three day visit spends less of itself getting between them.
Out late: Rome has roughly twice the drinking places and three times the nightclubs, but only about half sit near the centre. Florence has fewer, almost all of them walkable from where you will be staying.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information. It is a national price level, identical for both by construction, and the €155 a day beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city. Neither is the cheaper trip on this evidence; check accommodation and eating costs directly for the dates you have in mind.
Rome's beach and family strengths land in July and August, when both cities are hottest and busiest and Florence reaches 33°C; the beaches are near Rome rather than in it, so each one costs a day. Florence's September looks warm but carries 102mm of rain.
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. Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre). Florence: 1995-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Firenze / Peretola (5.6 km from centre).
Florence is at its best in May and June, with highs of 24-29°C and rain of 41-63mm. July and August are its driest months at 32-35mm, but they reach 33°C. From October to December rainfall runs 95-132mm.
Rome peaks in June and July, with highs of 28-31°C and only 21-33mm of rain. September is the better shoulder month here, 70mm against Florence's 102mm, with the sea still at 24°C and the same 27°C daytime high.
Getting there
| Flying from | Rome | Florence |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 0 m €91-122 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 40 m €143-159 FLR · 6 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 20 m €76-143 1 stop FCO · 23 km | 2 h 5 m €180-199 1 stop FLR · 6 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 15 m €98-119 FCO · 23 km | 2 h 10 m no fares FLR · 6 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €44-74 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 35 m €113-168 FLR · 6 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 25 m €30-91 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 70 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 10 m €176-218 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 55 m €232-255 2 stops FLR · 6 km |
| CataniaCTA | 1 h 20 m €60-112 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 35 m €135-156 FLR · 6 km |
| PalermoPMO | 1 h 10 m €38-50 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 25 m no fares FLR · 6 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 30 m €145-191 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 15 m no fares FLR · 6 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 3 h 10 m no fares CIA · 14 km | 3 h 10 m no fares PSA · 70 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 | Rome | Florence |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 21 m | 50 m |
| Main airport | Rome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre230 non-stop destinations | Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre36 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Rome | Florence |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,748,109 | 360,930 |
| People per km² | 2,135 | 3,528 |
| Museums within 10 km | 177 | 140 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 7 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 65 | 62 |
| 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 Rome or Florence somewhere new.