VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bologna or Portland?

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
  • day trips
  • food and drink

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

Choose Portland for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Bologna leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Portland 68: Bologna leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Portland 38: Bologna leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Portland 52: Bologna leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Portland 84: Portland leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Portland 58: Bologna leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Portland 55: Portland leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Portland 62: Bologna leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Portland 52: Bologna leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Portland 38: Bologna leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Portland 55: Bologna leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Portland 42: Portland leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Portland.

Your match

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

Bologna
Best match
60match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Portland
52match

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
15 hdaylight a day

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaPortland

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). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaPortland
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation54 m152 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaPortland
City population387,971652,503
People per km²2,7541,736
Museums within 10 km6817
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30

Where else could you go?

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