Bologna or Siena?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on museums & heritage with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Bologna if you want variety within walking distance: many more places to eat and to drink, more attractions and park space for children, and a drier run of summer months.
Choose Siena if heritage is the point and quiet suits you. It has 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Bologna's 3, and little in the way of nightlife.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Bologna and Siena are level on 0.
| Bologna | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 2 | 0 |
| Coast distance | 74 km | 64 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Bologna leads by 26 points.26
| Bologna | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 32 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 822 | 242 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 20 | 11 |
Museums & heritage. Siena leads by 4 points.4
| Bologna | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 67 | 71 |
| Museums within 10 km | 58 | 55 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 43 | 51 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 74 | 93 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 5 |
Nightlife. Bologna leads by 36 points.36
| Bologna | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 17 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 720 | 142 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 531 | 119 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 74 | 84 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 30 | 1 |
Nature & day trips. Bologna leads by 20 points.20
| Bologna | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 19 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 7 | 3 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 1 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 29 hectares |
Good for families. Bologna leads by 24 points.24
| Bologna | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 31 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 32 | 13 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 29 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Bologna leads by 10 points.10
| Bologna | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 50 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 120 | 69 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Bologna and Siena are level on 68.
| Bologna | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Bologna leads by 3 points.3
| Bologna | Siena | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 67 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7 °C to 31.5 °C | 8.9 °C to 31.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 34 mm to 75 mm | 49 mm to 136 mm |
| Dry months | 5 | 0 |
Where they differ
Bologna has roughly three times as many restaurants near the centre and a wider range of kitchens, and many times as many bars and clubs, most of them central. For families it carries about twice as many attractions near the centre and far more park space, with 7% of the surrounding land protected against Siena's 3%.
Siena's advantage is heritage reach: about as many museums as Bologna, but 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip range against 3.
Where they are alike
Neither city is a place to swim. Neither records a month with the sea at 21°C or more, and the coast sits outside both stays.
The two years run close, with daytime highs of 7-32°C in Bologna against 9-31°C in Siena, the same warmest month in July and similar winters. Both hold about the same number of museums, so a day of heritage is straightforward in either.
Which traveller are you?
Someone travelling to eat and stay out late should take Bologna. It has around three times as many restaurants near the centre, a wider spread of kitchens, and many times as many bars and clubs, most of them central.
A traveller after museums and old streets can use either, but Siena is the tighter fit: 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against 3, a compact walkable core and evenings that stay quiet.
Families are better served in Bologna, with about twice as many attractions near the centre, far more park space and 7% of the surrounding land protected. Neither city has a theme park within reach.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure is a national price level shared by both, so it says nothing about how Bologna and Siena compare on cost. The €155 daily budget beside it is one national estimate, not a measurement of either city, and prices on the ground can differ between a small hill town and a larger city.
No weather station near Siena records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low, and its monthly ratings rest on temperature and rainfall alone. Read the weather comparison as partly unmeasured, and note that Siena's best-feeling months are also among its wettest.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bologna: 1991-2020 normals, Bologna / Borgo Panigale (5.5 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).
Bologna's window runs May to September, and its summer is the drier of the two, 37mm in June against 71mm in Siena, with July highs of 32°C. The catch comes in autumn, when September and October each bring 75mm.
Siena is best in June and September, with June highs near 28°C. September is wet at 103mm and November wetter still at 136mm. August is the driest month there, at 49mm, though the heat is then at its peak.
Getting there
| Flying from | Bologna | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m €158-262 1 stop BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 40 m €143-159 FLR · 55 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 35 m €96-199 BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 35 m no fares PSA · 86 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 0 m €114-267 BLQ · 6 km | 2 h 5 m €180-199 1 stop FLR · 55 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €42-75 BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 35 m €113-168 FLR · 55 km |
| CataniaCTA | 1 h 40 m €41-45 BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 35 m €135-156 FLR · 55 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 50 m no fares BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 55 m €232-255 2 stops FLR · 55 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 0 m no fares BLQ · 6 km | 55 m €136-139 1 stop FLR · 55 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 10 m no fares BLQ · 6 km | 2 h 10 m no fares FLR · 55 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 25 m no fares BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 30 m no fares FLR · 55 km |
| CasablancaCMN | 3 h 5 m €180-238 1 stop BLQ · 6 km | 3 h 5 m €180-238 1 stop BLQ · 135 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Bologna | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Italian | Italian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CFL230 V, 50 Hz | CFL230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 54 m | 322 m |
| Main airport | Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre97 non-stop destinations | Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre36 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Bologna | Siena |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 387,971 | 52,812 |
| People per km² | 2,754 | 446 |
| Museums within 10 km | 66 | 29 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 62 | 25 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna or Siena somewhere new.