VacationSelector
The Colosseum, Rome
RomeThe Colosseum
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Rome by Tournasol7, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Rome or San Francisco?

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 Rome for

  • culture and sights
  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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. Rome 50, San Francisco 25: Rome leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Rome and San Francisco are level on 82.
Culture & sights. Rome 99, San Francisco 68: Rome leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Rome and San Francisco are level on 58.
Nature & outdoors. Rome 58, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Rome 92, San Francisco 72: Rome leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Rome 50, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Rome 60, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Rome 72, San Francisco 58: Rome leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Rome 38, San Francisco 14: Rome leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rome 68, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rome 40, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Rome
Best match
64match

Wins on culture and sights and beaches with your weighting.

San Francisco
59match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
RomeSan Francisco

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. Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRomeSan Francisco
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation21 m16 m
Main airportRome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre242 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureRomeSan Francisco
City population2,748,109873,965
People per km²2,1351,455
Museums within 10 km17851
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km70
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Rome or San Francisco 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.