VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Bologna or Tromso?

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

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Tromso for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Tromso’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, Tromso 8: Bologna leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Tromso 36: Bologna leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Tromso 27: Bologna leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Tromso 38: Bologna leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Tromso 14: Bologna leads by 81 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Tromso 45: Bologna leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Tromso 60: Bologna leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Tromso 15: Bologna leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Tromso 11: Bologna leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Tromso 32: Bologna leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Tromso 38: Bologna leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Tromso.

Your match

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

Bologna
Best match
60match

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

Tromso
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Tromso in July

16 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
73 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
24 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaTromso

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). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaTromso
Official languageItalianNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation54 m20 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaTromso
City population387,97179,943
People per km²2,75432
Museums within 10 km688
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 Tromso 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.