Siena or Sorrento?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 2 points apart
Wins on sights concentration and museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and year-round weather 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 Siena if the trip is about museums and heritage, and about walking: many times as many museums as Sorrento, and the notable places packed tightly around the centre. There is no beach and no sea to swim in.
Choose Sorrento if you want to swim. It has 78 beaches nearby and sea at 21°C or more through the summer, but far less to see on foot in town.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Sorrento leads by 77 points.77
| Siena | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 77 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 5 |
| Beaches 10 km | 0 | 78 |
| Coast distance | 64 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | — | 0 km |
Places to eat. Siena leads by 13 points.13
| Siena | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 19 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 242 | 249 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 11 | 5 |
Museums & heritage. Siena leads by 34 points.34
| Siena | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 37 |
| Museums within 10 km | 55 | 7 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 51 | 4 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 93 | 57 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 5 | 5 |
Nightlife. Sorrento leads by 5 points.5
| Siena | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 17 | 22 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 142 | 179 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 119 | 131 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 84 | 73 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 1 | 2 |
Nature & day trips. Sorrento leads by 4 points.4
| Siena | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 19 | 23 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 3 | 7 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 42 |
| Park area within 2 km | 29 hectares | 4 hectares |
Good for families. Siena leads by 26 points.26
| Siena | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 5 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 13 | 2 |
| Park area within 2 km | 29 hectares | 4 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Siena leads by 40 points.40
| Siena | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 10 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 69 | 7 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Siena and Sorrento are level on 68.
| Siena | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Sorrento leads by 9 points.9
| Siena | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 73 |
| Monthly daytime high | 8.9 °C to 31.3 °C | 13.1 °C to 31.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 49 mm to 136 mm | 17 mm to 159 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 3 |
Where they differ
Siena is the walkable one: many times as many notable places within reach on foot, many times as many museums, and those museums sit tightly around the centre. Both have 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach. Restaurant numbers near the centre are similar, but Siena covers a much wider range of kitchens, and it has many times as much park space near the centre.
Sorrento is the one with water: 78 beaches nearby, sea reaching 26°C in August, and a theme park within reach that Siena lacks.
Where they are alike
Neither is a base for wild country: 7% of the land around Sorrento is protected and 3% around Siena, and day trips in both lean on what is close by.
Evenings are quiet in both. Sorrento has somewhat more places to drink and about twice as many nightclubs, but in both towns they sit near the centre. Restaurant numbers near the centre are close too, so the difference is one of range rather than of choice.
Which traveller are you?
Swimmers and anyone planning beach days should take Sorrento. It has 78 beaches nearby where Siena has none, and the sea reaches 26°C in August, warm enough for swimming well into autumn.
Museum-minded travellers on foot should take Siena. It has many times as many museums as Sorrento, clustered tightly around the centre, along with many times as many notable places within walking distance.
Families will find neither strongly geared to them. Siena has many times as many attractions and much more park space near the centre; Sorrento offers the one theme park within reach, plus the beaches, which may settle it.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figures for these two are the same by construction: they reflect a national price level, not either town, so the comparison carries no information about which trip costs less. The €155 daily budget beside them is one national estimate rather than a measurement of Siena or Sorrento.
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. Sorrento's beaches are counted as nearby rather than in town, and the months when the sea is warmest are also the busiest.
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. Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre). Sorrento: 1991-2020 normals, Grazzanise (53.6 km from centre).
Siena is at its best in May and June, with highs of 23-28°C. September stays warm but turns wet, at 103mm. Its driest weeks come in July and August, near 49-53mm, though those are also the hottest.
Sorrento peaks from June to August, when rain drops to 17-29mm and the sea reaches 25-26°C. Its winters are milder, January days at 13-14°C rather than Siena's 9°C, and late autumn is wetter there, 159mm in November.
Getting there
| Flying from | Siena | Sorrento |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m €143-159 FLR · 55 km | 2 h 10 m €108-170 NAP · 30 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 5 m €180-199 1 stop FLR · 55 km | 2 h 35 m €90-167 1 stop NAP · 30 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 5 m no fares EBA · 108 km | 1 h 30 m €35-109 NAP · 30 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 55 m €232-255 2 stops FLR · 55 km | 2 h 25 m €163-210 1 stop NAP · 30 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 35 m €113-168 FLR · 55 km | 1 h 50 m €103-165 1 stop NAP · 30 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 86 km | 1 h 10 m no fares NAP · 30 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 55 m €136-139 1 stop FLR · 55 km | 55 m no fares NAP · 30 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 15 m no fares FLR · 55 km | 1 h 40 m €157-224 1 stop NAP · 30 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 10 m no fares FLR · 55 km | 2 h 25 m no fares NAP · 30 km |
| Sharm el SheikhSSH | 3 h 45 m no fares RMI · 129 km | 3 h 25 m no fares NAP · 30 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 | Siena | Sorrento |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 322 m | 50 m |
| Main airport | Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre36 non-stop destinations | Naples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Siena | Sorrento |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 52,812 | 15,407 |
| People per km² | 446 | 1,541 |
| Museums within 10 km | 29 | 5 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 5 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 25 | 11 |
| 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 Siena or Sorrento somewhere new.