Bologna or Sorrento?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on good for families and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and year-round weather 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 a city: a compact centre where museums, restaurants and evening places sit within walking distance of each other, and enough of each to fill several days without leaving town.
Choose Sorrento if the sea is the reason for the trip. It has 78 beaches nearby and five months of swimmable sea, but far less to do indoors, after dark or with children.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Sorrento leads by 77 points.77
| Bologna | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 77 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 5 |
| Beaches 10 km | 2 | 78 |
| Coast distance | 74 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | — | 0 km |
Places to eat. Bologna leads by 39 points.39
| Bologna | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 19 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 822 | 249 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 20 | 5 |
Museums & heritage. Bologna leads by 30 points.30
| Bologna | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 67 | 37 |
| Museums within 10 km | 58 | 7 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 43 | 4 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 74 | 57 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 5 |
Nightlife. Bologna leads by 31 points.31
| Bologna | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 22 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 720 | 179 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 531 | 131 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 74 | 73 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 30 | 2 |
Nature & day trips. Bologna leads by 16 points.16
| Bologna | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 23 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 7 | 7 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 1 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 42 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 4 hectares |
Good for families. Bologna leads by 50 points.50
| Bologna | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 5 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 32 | 2 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 4 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Bologna leads by 50 points.50
| Bologna | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 10 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 120 | 7 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Bologna and Sorrento are level on 68.
| Bologna | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Sorrento leads by 6 points.6
| Bologna | Sorrento | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 67 | 73 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7 °C to 31.5 °C | 13.1 °C to 31.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 34 mm to 75 mm | 17 mm to 159 mm |
| Dry months | 5 | 3 |
Where they differ
Bologna puts many more notable places within walking distance of the centre, so days need less travelling. It has about three times as many restaurants near the centre and a wider range of kitchens, many more museums, and far more bars and clubs.
Sorrento's advantage is the coast: 78 beaches nearby against Bologna's two, and five months of sea at 21°C or more. It also has one theme park within reach where Bologna has none, though Bologna leads on attractions and park space for families.
Where they are alike
Weather is where the two are closest. Both have hot summers, with highs of 31-32°C, and plenty of sun, roughly 2300-2500 hours a year, while winter is the season to work around in both.
On the countryside they are also similar. 7% of the land around each is protected, and both have UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach. Neither is a base for walking in itself; the open country is something you travel out to.
Which traveller are you?
If you travel for food and city culture, Bologna: about three times as many restaurants near the centre, a wider range of kitchens, many more museums, and most of it within walking distance.
If the holiday is swimming, Sorrento: 78 beaches nearby and sea at 21°C or more for five months, peaking at 26°C in August. Bologna has essentially no coast to offer.
Travelling with children, Bologna has many more attractions and much more park space near the centre. Sorrento's single theme park is its one clear card, with little else behind it for a family week.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so it carries no information about which of these two costs more. The €155 a day beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either place, and a coastal stay in August will not resemble a city one in November.
Sorrento's beach appeal lands in the few months when the sea is warmest and rain is lowest, and that is also when a town of 15,400 people absorbs the most visitors. Bologna's warm summer figures hide its autumn, which is the wettest part of its year.
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). Sorrento: 1991-2020 normals, Grazzanise (53.6 km from centre).
Bologna is at its best in May and June, with highs of 24-29°C and moderate rain. Autumn is the weak stretch, at about 75mm a month, and midsummer is hot in the city.
Sorrento is at its best from June to August, when highs sit near 31°C, the sea reaches 23-26°C and rain drops to 17-18mm. Winters are milder than Bologna's, but wetter: November brings 159mm, so the shoulder months either side of summer are the safer compromise.
Getting there
| Flying from | Bologna | Sorrento |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 0 m €114-267 BLQ · 6 km | 2 h 35 m €90-167 1 stop NAP · 30 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m €158-262 1 stop BLQ · 6 km | 2 h 10 m €108-170 NAP · 30 km |
| CataniaCTA | 1 h 40 m €41-45 BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 5 m €36-65 NAP · 30 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €42-75 BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 50 m €103-165 1 stop NAP · 30 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 25 m €154-191 1 stop BLQ · 6 km | 2 h 5 m €167-197 1 stop NAP · 30 km |
| PalermoPMO | 1 h 30 m €83-129 1 stop BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 0 m €39-94 NAP · 30 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 10 m no fares BLQ · 6 km | 2 h 25 m no fares NAP · 30 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 10 m no fares BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 40 m €157-224 1 stop NAP · 30 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 30 m €637-650 VCE · 138 km | 9 h 0 m no fares NAP · 30 km |
| CasablancaCMN | 3 h 5 m €180-238 1 stop BLQ · 6 km | 3 h 10 m no fares NAP · 30 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 2026-09, 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 | Sorrento |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 50 m |
| Main airport | Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre97 non-stop destinations | Naples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Bologna | Sorrento |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 387,971 | 15,407 |
| People per km² | 2,754 | 1,541 |
| Museums within 10 km | 66 | 5 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 62 | 11 |
| 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 Sorrento somewhere new.