VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Arequipa or Bologna?

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 Arequipa for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Bologna for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Bologna’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. Arequipa 8, Bologna 30: Bologna leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Bologna 82: Bologna leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Bologna 77: Bologna leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Bologna 58: Bologna leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Bologna 52: Arequipa leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Bologna 95: Bologna leads by 65 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Bologna 50: Bologna leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Bologna 76: Bologna leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Bologna 55: Bologna leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Bologna 48: Arequipa leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Bologna 60: Bologna leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Bologna 40: Bologna leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Bologna.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Arequipa
46match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Bologna
Best match
60match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
11 hdaylight a day

Bologna in July

32 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaBologna

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Bologna has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Bologna's sunshine is measured 82 km from the centre, at Cervia.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Bologna: 1991-2020 normals, Bologna / Borgo Panigale (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaBologna
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaItalian
CurrencySol (PEN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation2,335 m54 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaBologna
City population1,008,290387,971
People per km²1,5512,754
Museums within 10 km368
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Arequipa or Bologna 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.