VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
Ferries off the Kordon promenade, Izmir
IzmirFerries off the Kordon promenade

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Izmir by Toygar Par, Pexels License.

Bologna or Izmir?

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

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Izmir for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Izmir’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, Izmir 62: Izmir leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Izmir 72: Bologna leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Izmir 55: Bologna leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Izmir 60: Izmir leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Izmir 66: Izmir leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Izmir 86: Bologna leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Izmir 55: Izmir leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Izmir 63: Bologna leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna and Izmir are level on 55.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Izmir 66: Izmir leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Izmir 48: Bologna leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Izmir 57: Izmir leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Izmir.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Bologna
60match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Izmir
62match

Wins on beaches and prices 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

Izmir in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaIzmir

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). Izmir: 1991-2020 normals, Izmir (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaIzmir
Official languageItalianTurkish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112112
Elevation54 m2 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsAdnan Menderes International Airport (ADB)13 km from centre120 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaIzmir
City population387,9714,493,242
People per km²2,7544,760
Museums within 10 km6829
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

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