VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License.

Bologna or Cape Town?

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 Bologna for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Cape Town for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Cape Town’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. Bologna 30, Cape Town 58: Cape Town leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Cape Town 72: Bologna leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Cape Town 60: Bologna leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Cape Town 60: Cape Town leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Cape Town 98: Cape Town leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Cape Town 68: Bologna leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Cape Town 58: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Cape Town 35: Bologna leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Cape Town 50: Bologna leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Cape Town 72: Cape Town leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Cape Town 52: Bologna leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Cape Town 45: Cape Town leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Cape Town.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Bologna
60match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Cape Town
61match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bologna in July

32 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaCape Town

Where the figures come from

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. Bologna: 1991-2020 normals, Bologna / Borgo Panigale (5.5 km from centre). Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaCape Town
Official languageItalianEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number112112
Elevation54 m5 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaCape Town
City population387,9713,776,313
People per km²2,7541,538
Museums within 10 km6822
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna or Cape Town 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.