VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Bologna or Samarkand?

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

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Samarkand’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, Samarkand 4: Bologna leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Samarkand 54: Bologna leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Samarkand 14: Bologna leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Samarkand 40: Bologna leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Samarkand 72: Bologna leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Samarkand 30: Bologna leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Samarkand 58: Bologna leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Samarkand 42: Bologna leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Samarkand 24: Bologna leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Samarkand 32: Bologna leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Samarkand.

Your match

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

Bologna
Best match
60match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Samarkand
45match

Wins on prices and culture and sights 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

Samarkand in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 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
BolognaSamarkand

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). Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaSamarkand
Official languageItalianUzbek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5
Emergency number112112
Elevation54 m702 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaSamarkand
City population387,971546,303
People per km²2,7545,058
Museums within 10 km6811
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31

Where else could you go?

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