VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Bologna or Hiroshima?

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
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Hiroshima for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Hiroshima’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 and Hiroshima are level on 30.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Hiroshima 66: Bologna leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Hiroshima 60: Bologna leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Hiroshima 45: Bologna leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Hiroshima 62: Hiroshima leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Hiroshima 80: Bologna leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Hiroshima 60: Hiroshima leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Hiroshima 74: Bologna leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Hiroshima 52: Bologna leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Hiroshima 58: Hiroshima leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Hiroshima 38: Bologna leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Hiroshima 50: Hiroshima leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Hiroshima.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Hiroshima
56match

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
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaHiroshima

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). Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaHiroshima
Official languageItalianJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation54 m3 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaHiroshima
City population387,9711,198,021
People per km²2,7541,324
Museums within 10 km6818
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna or Hiroshima 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.