VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The skyline and the Rocky Mountains over City Park and Ferril Lake, Denver
DenverThe skyline and the Rocky Mountains over City Park and Ferril Lake

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Denver by Zenhaus, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bologna or Denver?

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

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Denver for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Denver’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, Denver 5: Bologna leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Denver 54: Bologna leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Denver 44: Bologna leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Denver 47: Bologna leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Denver 84: Denver leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Denver 57: Bologna leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Denver 67: Denver leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Denver 40: Bologna leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Denver 44: Bologna leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Denver 36: Bologna leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Denver 66: Denver leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna and Denver are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Denver.

Your match

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

Bologna
Best match
60match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Denver
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families 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

Denver in July

32 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
55 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaDenver

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). Denver: 1991-2020 normals, Denver / Stapleton International, Co. (11.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaDenver
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation54 m1,609 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsDenver International Airport (DEN)30 km from centre231 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaDenver
City population387,971715,522
People per km²2,7541,783
Museums within 10 km6826
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 Denver 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.