Rome 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 nightlife and good for families 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 Rome if you want to walk between notable places without planning, want a choice of restaurants and bars after dark, and are travelling with children: attractions, park space, 4 theme parks and 3 beaches within reach.
Choose Siena if you want a small city of about 52,800 people, a tight museum cluster and evenings that stay within a few streets rather than spread across a capital.
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 | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 33 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 5 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 3 | 0 |
| Coast distance | 24 km | 64 km |
| Water distance | 24 km | — |
Places to eat. Rome leads by 28 points.28
| Rome | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 32 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 2,241 | 242 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 10 | 11 |
Museums & heritage. Rome leads by 13 points.13
| Rome | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 84 | 71 |
| Museums within 10 km | 161 | 55 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 79 | 51 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 49 | 93 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 7 | 5 |
Nightlife. Rome leads by 57 points.57
| Rome | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 17 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 2,022 | 142 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 912 | 119 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 45 | 84 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 85 | 1 |
Nature & day trips. Rome leads by 51 points.51
| Rome | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 19 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 19 | 3 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 78 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 172 hectares | 29 hectares |
Good for families. Rome leads by 55 points.55
| Rome | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 86 | 31 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 126 | 13 |
| Park area within 2 km | 172 hectares | 29 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 4 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Rome leads by 49 points.49
| Rome | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 99 | 50 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 1,125 | 69 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Rome and Siena are level on 68.
| Rome | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Rome leads by 7 points.7
| Rome | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | 12 °C to 31.4 °C | 8.9 °C to 31.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 21 mm to 114 mm | 49 mm to 136 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 0 |
Where they differ
Rome has many times as many bars and nightclubs, so a night out has range. For families there are far more attractions and park space near the centre, 4 theme parks where Siena has none, and 3 beaches with sea at 21°C or more for five months. Around Rome 19% of the land is protected, against 3% around Siena.
Siena's advantage is compactness: its museums sit more tightly around the centre, and most of its drinking places are close in, so an evening needs no transport.
Where they are alike
Their weather years run close: both peak at 31°C in high summer, and both are coolest in January, Rome at 12°C and Siena at 9°C.
Both are heritage cities first: Rome has 7 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach and Siena 5, and the museums in each are grouped where you are already walking. The range of kitchens on offer is similar in both, even if the number of restaurants is not.
Which traveller are you?
Travelling with children: Rome. Far more attractions and park space near the centre, 4 theme parks within reach, and 3 beaches with sea warm enough for swimming from June to October.
A traveller who wants heritage without distance: Siena. Its museums sit tightly around the centre, so several can be covered on foot in a day, and the evenings around them stay quiet.
Anyone planning evenings out: Rome, with many times as many bars and places to eat near the centre. Siena's few drinking places are nearly all central, which suits one unhurried night rather than a choice of them.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two cities carries no information: that figure is a national price level and is identical for both by construction. The €155 daily budget beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either place, so neither can be called the cheaper trip on this evidence.
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. Rome's beach and sea figures describe coast reached from the city rather than water at the door, and its strongest summer months are also the ones at 31°C.
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). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).
Rome's best run is May to September. June is warm at 28°C with 33mm of rain, July the driest month at 21mm, and the sea reaches 25°C in August. Autumn turns wet, with 97mm in October and 114mm in November.
Siena is better in late spring, April to June, at 20-28°C; May is wetter at 99mm. July and August match Rome's 31°C but stay drier than the shoulder months, and September is warm at 26°C with 103mm. November is the wettest at 136mm.
Getting there
| Flying from | Rome | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 0 m €91-122 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 40 m €143-159 FLR · 55 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 · 55 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 15 m €98-119 FCO · 23 km | 2 h 10 m no fares FLR · 55 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €44-74 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 35 m €113-168 FLR · 55 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 25 m €30-91 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 86 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 10 m €176-218 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 55 m €232-255 2 stops FLR · 55 km |
| CataniaCTA | 1 h 20 m €60-112 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 35 m €135-156 FLR · 55 km |
| PalermoPMO | 1 h 10 m €38-50 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 25 m no fares FLR · 55 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 30 m €145-191 FCO · 23 km | 1 h 15 m no fares FLR · 55 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 3 h 10 m no fares CIA · 14 km | 3 h 10 m no fares PSA · 86 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 | 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 | 21 m | 322 m |
| Main airport | Rome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre230 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 | Rome | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,748,109 | 52,812 |
| People per km² | 2,135 | 446 |
| Museums within 10 km | 177 | 29 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 7 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 65 | 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 Rome or Siena somewhere new.