VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License.

Bologna or Osaka?

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

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

Choose Osaka for

  • families
  • wellness
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Osaka’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, Osaka 34: Osaka leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Osaka 91: Osaka leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Osaka 63: Bologna leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Osaka 58: Osaka leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Osaka 97: Osaka leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Osaka 88: Osaka leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Osaka 90: Osaka leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Osaka 60: Osaka leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Osaka.

Your match

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

Bologna
60match

Wins on culture and sights with your weighting.

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on families 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

Osaka in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
175 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaOsaka

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). Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaOsaka
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 m20 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaOsaka
City population387,9712,751,862
People per km²2,75412,340
Museums within 10 km6844
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km36
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 Osaka 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.