VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

Bologna or Madrid?

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

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose Madrid for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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, Madrid 5: Bologna leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Madrid 80: Bologna leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Madrid 86: Madrid leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Madrid 85: Madrid leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Madrid 60: Madrid leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Madrid 89: Bologna leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Madrid 68: Madrid leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Madrid 84: Madrid leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Madrid 75: Madrid leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Madrid 50: Madrid leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Madrid 77: Madrid leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Madrid 36: Bologna leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Madrid.

Your match

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

Bologna
60match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife and shopping 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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaMadrid

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

Before you go

MeasureBolognaMadrid
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation54 m663 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaMadrid
City population387,9713,506,730
People per km²2,7545,801
Museums within 10 km6888
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km34

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna or Madrid 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.