Bologna or Como?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on good for families and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips 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 Bologna if you want a city trip: many more restaurants and kitchens to choose from, more museums, more to do after dark, and most of it within walking distance of the centre, with dry summers reaching 32°C.
Choose Como if the surroundings matter more than the streets: 23% of the land around it is protected, 8 UNESCO-listed places sit within day-trip reach, and the base is smaller and quieter.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Bologna and Como are level on 0.
| Bologna | Como | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 2 | 8 |
| Coast distance | 74 km | 156 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Bologna leads by 33 points.33
| Bologna | Como | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 25 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 822 | 259 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 20 | 7 |
Museums & heritage. Bologna leads by 21 points.21
| Bologna | Como | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 67 | 46 |
| Museums within 10 km | 58 | 9 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 43 | 6 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 74 | 67 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 8 |
Nightlife. Bologna leads by 29 points.29
| Bologna | Como | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 24 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 720 | 213 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 531 | 143 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 74 | 67 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 30 | 1 |
Nature & day trips. Como leads by 1 points.1
| Bologna | Como | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 40 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 7 | 23 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 1 | 5 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 15 hectares |
Good for families. Bologna leads by 40 points.40
| Bologna | Como | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 15 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 32 | 6 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 15 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Bologna leads by 30 points.30
| Bologna | Como | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 30 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 120 | 22 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Bologna and Como are level on 68.
| Bologna | Como | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Bologna leads by 9 points.9
| Bologna | Como | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 67 | 58 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7 °C to 31.5 °C | 7.1 °C to 27.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 34 mm to 75 mm | 61 mm to 178 mm |
| Dry months | 5 | 0 |
Where they differ
Bologna has about three times as many restaurants near the centre and a much wider range of kitchens, with many more places to drink and far more clubs, most of them close in. It also has many times as many museums, more attractions and park space for children, and far more notable places within walking distance of the centre.
Como's edge is beyond the streets: 23% of the surrounding land is protected against 7% around Bologna, and 8 UNESCO-listed places lie within day-trip reach against 3. It has 8 beaches nearby to Bologna's 2.
Where they are alike
Neither is a swimming destination. Como has 8 beaches nearby and Bologna 2, but neither has a month of sea at 21°C or more, so this is not a coast trip in either case.
They are closer than they look on days out: each has protected countryside within reach. Both sit at the same national price level, and both are coldest in January, with highs of 7°C.
Which traveller are you?
If you are travelling for food and evenings out, Bologna: about three times as many restaurants near the centre, a much wider range of kitchens, and far more bars and clubs, most of them close in.
Families are better served in Bologna too, with many times as many attractions and much more park space near the centre. Neither city has a theme park within reach, so plan around ordinary city days.
Walkers and anyone happy to drive should look at Como: 23% of the land around it is protected against 7% around Bologna, and 8 UNESCO-listed places sit within day-trip reach against 3.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information. The figure behind it is a national price level, identical for both by construction, and the €155-a-day budget beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city. On the ground one may cost noticeably more than the other.
Como's tally of 8 beaches flatters it: neither city has a month of sea at 21°C or more, so those are places to sit by water rather than swim. Como's warmest months are also its wettest, above 150mm, so its best temperatures and its driest weeks never coincide.
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. Bologna: 1991-2020 normals, Bologna / Borgo Panigale (5.5 km from centre). Como: 1991-2020 normals, Lugano (23 km from centre).
Bologna's window runs May to September. Midsummer highs reach 32°C with only 34-40mm of rain, and early autumn still holds 26°C before rainfall climbs to 75mm.
Como is warmest in midsummer at 27°C, but those months bring 158mm of rain, and it stays wet from spring through autumn. Its driest stretch is late winter, at 61-76mm, when highs are only 9-14°C. Either way the trade is warmth against rain.
Getting there
| Flying from | Bologna | Como |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 0 m €114-267 BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 45 m €48-103 MXP · 34 km |
| CataniaCTA | 1 h 40 m €41-45 BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 55 m €36-88 MXP · 34 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €42-75 BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 30 m €34-53 MXP · 34 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m €158-262 1 stop BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 20 m €46-63 MXP · 34 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 25 m €154-191 1 stop BLQ · 6 km | 2 h 40 m €140-309 MXP · 34 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 35 m €96-199 BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 45 m €31-93 BGY · 51 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 30 m €637-650 VCE · 138 km | 8 h 15 m €542-635 1 stop MXP · 34 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 5 h 55 m no fares BLQ · 6 km | 6 h 10 m €375-563 MXP · 34 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 9 h 55 m no fares VCE · 138 km | 10 h 10 m €710-815 1 stop MXP · 34 km |
| CancunCUN | 11 h 10 m no fares VRN · 106 km | 11 h 0 m no fares MXP · 34 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 2026-09, 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 | Bologna | Como |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 54 m | 201 m |
| Main airport | Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre97 non-stop destinations | Milan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)34 km from centre203 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Bologna | Como |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 387,971 | 83,184 |
| People per km² | 2,754 | 2,242 |
| Museums within 10 km | 66 | 9 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 8 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 62 | 22 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna or Como somewhere new.