VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bologna or Chengdu?

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

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Chengdu for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Chengdu’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, Chengdu 5: Bologna leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Chengdu 86: Chengdu leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Chengdu 60: Bologna leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Chengdu 68: Chengdu leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Chengdu 68: Chengdu leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Chengdu 80: Bologna leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Chengdu 65: Chengdu leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Chengdu 74: Bologna leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Chengdu 64: Chengdu leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Chengdu 80: Chengdu leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Chengdu 50: Bologna leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Chengdu 58: Chengdu leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Chengdu.

Your match

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

Bologna
60match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Chengdu
Best match
63match

Wins on prices and wellness 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
15 hdaylight a day

Chengdu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
177 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaChengdu

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). Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaChengdu
Official languageItalianPutonghua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation54 m500 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaChengdu
City population387,97120,937,757
People per km²2,7541,456
Museums within 10 km6810
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna or Chengdu 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. 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.