VacationSelector
The Colosseum, Rome
RomeThe Colosseum
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Rome by Tournasol7, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Rome or Virginia Beach?

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
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Rome 82, Virginia Beach 42: Rome leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Rome 99, Virginia Beach 30: Rome leads by 69 points.
Nightlife. Rome 58, Virginia Beach 37: Rome leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rome 58, Virginia Beach 56: Rome leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Rome 92, Virginia Beach 64: Rome leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Rome 50, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Rome 60, Virginia Beach 27: Rome leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Rome 72, Virginia Beach 32: Rome leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Rome 38, Virginia Beach 40: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rome 68, Virginia Beach 38: Rome leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rome 40, Virginia Beach 32: Rome leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rome and Virginia Beach.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on beaches 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

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
RomeVirginia Beach

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). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRomeVirginia Beach
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation21 m7 m
Main airportRome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre242 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureRomeVirginia Beach
City population2,748,109459,470
People per km²2,135-
Museums within 10 km1782
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km70
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Rome or Virginia Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.