VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort, Galle
GalleThe Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Bologna or Galle?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Galle for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Galle’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, Galle 80: Galle leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Galle 50: Bologna leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Galle 55: Bologna leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Galle 18: Bologna leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Galle 66: Galle leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Galle 50: Bologna leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Galle 42: Bologna leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Galle 35: Bologna leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Galle 33: Bologna leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Galle 72: Galle leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Galle 10: Bologna leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Galle 70: Galle leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Galle.

Your match

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

Bologna
Best match
60match

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

Galle
48match

Wins on beaches 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
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Galle in July

28 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaGalle

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.

Galle has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bologna: 1991-2020 normals, Bologna / Borgo Panigale (5.5 km from centre). Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBolognaGalle
Official languageItalianTamil, Sinhala
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number112Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation54 m0 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaGalle
City population387,97193,118
People per km²2,754-
Museums within 10 km682
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna or Galle 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.