Bologna or Turin?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, level with your weighting
Wins on nature & day trips and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and places to eat 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 compact trip: more notable places within walking distance of the centre, about twice the park space near the middle, and a warmer, drier summer.
Choose Turin if evenings matter: about twice as many places to drink and as many nightclubs, plus somewhat more restaurants near the centre, in a city more than twice Bologna's size.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Bologna and Turin are level on 0.
| Bologna | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 2 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 74 km | 105 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Turin leads by 6 points.6
| Bologna | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 64 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 822 | 1,198 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 20 | 21 |
Museums & heritage. Turin leads by 1 points.1
| Bologna | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 67 | 68 |
| Museums within 10 km | 58 | 65 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 43 | 39 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 74 | 60 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 4 |
Nightlife. Turin leads by 13 points.13
| Bologna | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 66 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 720 | 1,375 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 531 | 768 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 74 | 56 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 30 | 57 |
Nature & day trips. Bologna leads by 6 points.6
| Bologna | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 33 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 7 | 6 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 1 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 72 hectares |
Good for families. Bologna leads by 2 points.2
| Bologna | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 53 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 32 | 36 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 72 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Bologna leads by 5 points.5
| Bologna | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 55 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 120 | 92 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Bologna and Turin are level on 68.
| Bologna | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Bologna leads by 3 points.3
| Bologna | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 67 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7 °C to 31.5 °C | 7.1 °C to 28.5 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 34 mm to 75 mm | 44 mm to 127 mm |
| Dry months | 5 | 0 |
Where they differ
Bologna packs more into a walk: somewhat more notable places within walking distance of the centre, and about twice the park space near the middle. It runs warmer too, 7-32°C across the year against Turin's 7-29°C, with 5 months at 40mm of rain or less where Turin has none.
Turin is the better base after dark, with about twice as many places to drink and twice as many nightclubs, though only about half sit near the centre against most of Bologna's. It also has somewhat more restaurants near the centre.
Where they are alike
Neither is a place to swim: Bologna has 2 beaches nearby and Turin 1, and neither sees a month with sea at 21°C or more.
Museums and heritage are near-matched, similar numbers of museums each and UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach on both sides, 3 for Bologna and 4 for Turin. For families, both have a similar count of attractions near the centre and neither has a theme park within reach.
Which traveller are you?
If your evenings are the point of the trip, take Turin: roughly twice as many places to drink and nightclubs as Bologna, and somewhat more restaurants near the centre, though only about half of that sits centrally.
A walker who wants the day on foot is better off in Bologna, with somewhat more notable places within walking distance of the centre and about twice the park space nearby for breaks between them.
Families are close to a tie. Neither has a theme park within reach and attractions near the centre are similar in number, so Bologna's extra park space and warmer, drier summer, up to 32°C in July, tips it.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information: the figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction rather than a finding about either city. The €155 daily budget beside it is one national estimate, not a measurement of Bologna or Turin, so check real prices for your dates.
No weather station near Turin records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low. Its monthly ratings rest on temperature and rainfall alone, which means one side of the weather comparison here is simply unmeasured.
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). Turin: 1991-2020 normals, Torino / Caselle (15.4 km from centre).
Bologna is the stronger pick from May to July: highs climb 24-32°C and rainfall stays at 34-50mm, the driest stretch of its year. September still reaches 26°C, but rain jumps to 75mm.
Turin comes into its own from June to August, at 26-29°C, with July the driest of the three at 57mm. Its spring and autumn are wetter, 102mm in May and 113-116mm in September and October, so those shoulder months favour Bologna.
Getting there
| Flying from | Bologna | Turin |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 30 m €637-650 VCE · 138 km | 8 h 15 m €542-635 1 stop MXP · 103 km |
| CataniaCTA | 1 h 40 m €41-45 BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 55 m €41-129 TRN · 14 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 0 m €114-267 BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 45 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 0 m no fares BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 15 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €42-75 BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 25 m €36-129 TRN · 14 km |
| PalermoPMO | 1 h 30 m €83-129 1 stop BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 45 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| TiranaTIA | 1 h 35 m €96-199 BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 55 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 9 h 55 m no fares VCE · 138 km | 10 h 10 m €710-815 1 stop MXP · 103 km |
| CasablancaCMN | 3 h 5 m €180-238 1 stop BLQ · 6 km | 2 h 50 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| CancunCUN | 11 h 10 m no fares VRN · 106 km | 11 h 0 m no fares MXP · 103 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 | Turin |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 239 m |
| Main airport | Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre97 non-stop destinations | Turin Airport (TRN)14 km from centre63 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Bologna | Turin |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 387,971 | 841,600 |
| People per km² | 2,754 | 6,474 |
| Museums within 10 km | 66 | 72 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 62 | 78 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna or Turin somewhere new.