Athens or Rome?

1,085 km apart, in Greece and Italy. Each is scored month by month on the same ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. This is where they part, and when.

• Athens Greece · best May, Sep, Oct
• Rome Italy · best Jun, Jul, Aug

Month by month

Each cell is that destination's own verdict for the month — sweet spot, ok or avoid — with its typical daily high and its rainy days ("11d"). The pick goes to the better verdict; with the same verdict, to the higher score, unless the two are within a whisker of each other, when it is either. A month both would avoid is neither. A dot marks a busy month.

Before you go

• Cost of living — Athens: cheap, about 60% of the United States; Rome: moderate, about 69% of the United States.
• Currency — Athens: Q4916; Rome: Q4916.
• Plugs — Athens: type C and F, 230 V; Rome: type C and F and L, 230 V.
• Driving — Athens: on the right; Rome: on the right.
• Travel advice — Athens: no advice against travel; Rome: no advice against travel.

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.

Between them

1,085 km as the crow flies, about 2h 14m in the air.Nonstop, about 9 a day · 4 airlines. By bus, about 44h 37m · Tirana to Athens · Belgrade to Prishtina. By road, 1,418 km and about 22h 59m.

The flight time is estimated from the distance. A road, train or bus is named only where it was measured — flights from AeroDataBox, roads from OpenRouteService, timetables via Transitous — and none of it is a fare; the searches on each destination's page are where prices live.

Also compared

• Athens or Amsterdam
• Athens or Barcelona
• Athens or Budapest
• Athens or Lisbon
• Athens or London
• Athens or Paris
• Athens or Prague
• Athens or Vienna
• Athens or Zurich
• Rome or Amsterdam
• Rome or Barcelona
• Rome or Budapest

Every verdict here is the destination's own: ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. The comparison is the difference between two pages, not a third opinion.