VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Bologna or San Francisco?

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

  • prices
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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, San Francisco 25: Bologna leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Bologna and San Francisco are level on 82.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, San Francisco 68: Bologna leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Bologna and San Francisco are level on 58.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, San Francisco 72: Bologna leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, San Francisco 70: Bologna leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, San Francisco 14: Bologna leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Bologna
60match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

San Francisco
59match

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
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaSan Francisco

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). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaSan Francisco
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 m16 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaSan Francisco
City population387,971873,965
People per km²2,7541,455
Museums within 10 km6851
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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