VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The Hofburg and Heldenplatz, Vienna
ViennaThe Hofburg and Heldenplatz

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Vienna by C.Stadler/Bwag, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT, cropped.

Bologna or Vienna?

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
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Vienna for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Vienna’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, Vienna 27: Bologna leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Vienna 68: Bologna leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Vienna 89: Vienna leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Vienna 50: Bologna leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Vienna 62: Vienna leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Vienna 74: Bologna leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Vienna 77: Vienna leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Vienna 90: Vienna leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Vienna 62: Vienna leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Vienna 44: Bologna leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Vienna 96: Vienna leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Vienna 58: Vienna leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Vienna.

Your match

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

Bologna
60match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Vienna
Best match
66match

Wins on live music and the arts 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
15 hdaylight a day

Vienna in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
78 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaVienna

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). Vienna: 1991-2020 normals, Wien / Hohe Warte (4.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaVienna
Official languageItalianGerman, Austrian Sign Language
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation54 m151 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsVienna International Airport (VIE)18 km from centre202 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaVienna
City population387,9712,028,289
People per km²2,7544,890
Museums within 10 km68152
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna or Vienna 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.