Venice or Rome?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and nightlife 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 Rome if you want museums and evening life within walking reach, plus green space and day trips beyond the city; the surrounding land is heavily protected and the range of places to eat is far wider.
Choose Venice if swimming matters: the sea is 4km from the centre with 20 beaches nearby, in a compact, quieter city.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Venice leads by 36 points.36
| Venice | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 69 | 33 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 5 |
| Beaches 10 km | 20 | 3 |
| Coast distance | 4 km | 24 km |
| Water distance | 4 km | 24 km |
Places to eat. Rome leads by 15 points.15
| Venice | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 60 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 750 | 2,241 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 10 | 10 |
Museums & heritage. Rome leads by 12 points.12
| Venice | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 84 |
| Museums within 10 km | 57 | 161 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 45 | 79 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 79 | 49 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 5 | 7 |
Nightlife. Rome leads by 39 points.39
| Venice | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 74 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 342 | 2,022 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 306 | 912 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 89 | 45 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 3 | 85 |
Nature & day trips. Rome leads by 53 points.53
| Venice | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 17 | 70 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 4 | 19 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 70 | 78 |
| Park area within 2 km | 15 hectares | 172 hectares |
Good for families. Rome leads by 29 points.29
| Venice | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 86 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 72 | 126 |
| Park area within 2 km | 15 hectares | 172 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 4 |
Sights concentration. Rome leads by 16 points.16
| Venice | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83 | 99 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 464 | 1,125 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Venice and Rome are level on 68.
| Venice | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Rome leads by 5 points.5
| Venice | Rome | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 71 |
| Monthly daytime high | 8 °C to 30.4 °C | 12 °C to 31.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 36 mm to 106 mm | 21 mm to 114 mm |
| Dry months | 2 | 3 |
Where they differ
Rome is the stronger base for getting out: 19% of the land around it is protected against 4% around Venice, and it has far more park space near the centre. Its drinking and club scene is many times larger, and it has about three times as many restaurants near the centre.
Venice leads on water: the sea is 4km from its centre against 24km from Rome's, with 20 beaches nearby against Rome's 3, and water reaching 26°C in August.
Where they are alike
Both follow the same seasonal pattern, warm summers and cool winters, with August peaks of 31°C in Rome and 30°C in Venice and January highs of 12°C and 8°C. Neither is a winter-warm destination.
Both concentrate their appeal in a walkable core: notable places, museums and restaurants sit close to the centre in each, Venice's museums tightly packed, Rome's simply more numerous. Both have UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and a similar range of kitchens.
Which traveller are you?
Families are better served in Rome: about twice as many attractions near the centre, far more park space, and 4 theme parks within reach against Venice's 3, so a day is easier to break up.
A traveller who wants swimming between sightseeing should take Venice, where the sea is 4km from the centre and 20 beaches lie nearby. Rome's coast is 24km out, with fewer beaches.
Anyone whose evening starts after dinner belongs in Rome, with many times more bars and clubs and a far wider spread of restaurants. Venice's nightlife is small, and clustered near the centre.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure here is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so the comparison between them tells you nothing about which trip costs more; the €155 daily budget is one national estimate, not a measurement of either city. Actual costs will turn on season and neighbourhood.
Venice's beach strength is a summer strength: the sea is warmest in August, which is also when both cities are hottest at 30-31°C. Rome's lead in sights and museums sits in a walkable core, so crowds concentrate in the same few streets, and the months that avoid them, October and November, are also its wettest, at 97-114mm.
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. Venice: 1991-2020 normals, Treviso / S. Angelo (26.1 km from centre). Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre).
Rome's best run is May to September, and July is the driest month at 21mm with highs of 31°C. June, at 28°C and 33mm, is the balance point. Autumn turns wet, with 97mm in October and 114mm in November.
Venice peaks a little earlier and narrower, May and June at 24-28°C, though May brings 91mm and September 106mm. The sea reaches 26°C in August. Winter is dry, 38mm in January, but highs of 8°C limit what it is for.
Getting there
| Flying from | Venice | Rome |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m €68-109 VCE · 7 km | 2 h 0 m €91-122 FCO · 23 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 0 m €46-119 1 stop VCE · 7 km | 2 h 20 m €76-143 1 stop FCO · 23 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 20 m €102-159 VCE · 7 km | 2 h 15 m €98-119 FCO · 23 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 45 m €41-56 VCE · 7 km | 1 h 40 m €44-74 FCO · 23 km |
| CataniaCTA | 1 h 45 m no fares VCE · 7 km | 1 h 20 m €60-112 FCO · 23 km |
| PalermoPMO | 1 h 40 m €43-64 VCE · 7 km | 1 h 10 m €38-50 FCO · 23 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 30 m €637-650 VCE · 7 km | 8 h 45 m €446-597 FCO · 23 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 5 h 55 m €366-421 2 stops VCE · 7 km | 5 h 45 m €270-340 FCO · 23 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 9 h 55 m no fares VCE · 7 km | 10 h 15 m no fares FCO · 23 km |
| CancunCUN | 11 h 10 m no fares VRN · 113 km | 11 h 30 m no fares FCO · 23 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 | Venice | Rome |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 2 m | 21 m |
| Main airport | Venice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)7 km from centre98 non-stop destinations | Rome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre230 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Venice | Rome |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 250,369 | 2,748,109 |
| People per km² | 602 | 2,135 |
| Museums within 10 km | 52 | 177 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 5 | 7 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 46 | 65 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 4 months | 5 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Venice or Rome somewhere new.