Bologna or Zurich?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on value for money and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on places to eat and nightlife 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 warmth and dry spells, sights and parks packed into a walkable centre, and a base that works with children; Italy's national daily estimate is €155.
Choose Zurich if the draw is eating across many kitchens, more museums and a busier club scene, and you can accept cooler, wetter summers; Switzerland's national estimate is €248.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Bologna and Zurich are level on 0.
| Bologna | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 2 | 23 |
| Coast distance | 74 km | 632 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Zurich leads by 9 points.9
| Bologna | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 67 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 822 | 974 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 20 | 30 |
Museums & heritage. Bologna leads by 11 points.11
| Bologna | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 67 | 56 |
| Museums within 10 km | 58 | 76 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 43 | 37 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 74 | 49 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
Nightlife. Zurich leads by 1 points.1
| Bologna | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 54 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 720 | 676 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 531 | 553 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 74 | 82 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 30 | 74 |
Nature & day trips. Bologna leads by 2 points.2
| Bologna | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 37 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 7 | 16 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 1 | 9 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 48 hectares |
Good for families. Bologna leads by 19 points.19
| Bologna | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 36 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 32 | 8 |
| Park area within 2 km | 119 hectares | 48 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Bologna leads by 1 points.1
| Bologna | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 59 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 120 | 119 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Bologna leads by 33 points.33
| Bologna | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 35 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 110.5 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €248 |
Year-round weather. Bologna leads by 14 points.14
| Bologna | Zurich | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 67 | 53 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7 °C to 31.5 °C | 3.6 °C to 24.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 34 mm to 75 mm | 60 mm to 128 mm |
| Dry months | 5 | 0 |
Where they differ
Bologna runs warmer, with daytime highs of 7-32°C against Zurich's 4-24°C, and five months at 40mm of rain or less where Zurich has none. It has many times as many tourist attractions near the centre, twice as much park space, and more UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach. Italy's national daily estimate is €155.
Zurich has the wider range of kitchens, somewhat more restaurants near the centre, about twice as many nightclubs, and 2 theme parks where Bologna has none. Switzerland's national estimate is €248.
Where they are alike
Both cities put a similar number of notable places within walking distance of the centre, so in each you can see the main sights on foot without planning around transport.
Nightlife is comparable in scale, with about as many places to drink in each and most of them near the centre. Neither is a swimming destination, since no month brings water at 21°C or more, and the range of day trips around each is similarly modest.
Which traveller are you?
Travelling with children: Bologna, for many times as many tourist attractions near the centre, about twice as much park space, and milder shoulder months. Zurich answers mainly if its 2 theme parks are the deciding draw.
Eating and going out: Zurich, for the wider range of kitchens and roughly twice as many nightclubs, most of them central. Bologna matches it for places to drink, but with fewer clubs.
Museums and walking: both concentrate their notable places centrally. Bologna suits you if you want UNESCO-listed day trips and a tight museum cluster; Zurich if you want more museums in one city.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget is a single national estimate per country, the price level for restaurants and hotels in Italy and Switzerland, not a measurement of Bologna or Zurich. A heavily visited city can sit further from its own country average than the two national figures sit from each other, so read the gap as background rather than as what either trip will cost.
In Bologna, the driest stretch includes July and August, when highs reach 32°C, so dry does not mean comfortable. And the 23 beaches near Zurich are lakeside, with no month of water at 21°C or more.
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). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).
Bologna is at its best in May and June, with highs of 24°C and 29°C and rainfall of 50mm and 37mm. July and August reach 32°C, hot for walking, while September holds 26°C but rain climbs to 75mm.
Zurich peaks in July and August at 24°C, though those are also its wettest months, near 120mm. It stays damp all year, with no month drier than 60mm, and January highs of 4°C.
Getting there
| Flying from | Bologna | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 0 m €114-267 BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 35 m €110-163 ZRH · 9 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 25 m €154-191 1 stop BLQ · 6 km | 2 h 45 m €110-133 ZRH · 9 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €42-75 BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 40 m €114-151 ZRH · 9 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m €158-262 1 stop BLQ · 6 km | 1 h 15 m €163-196 ZRH · 9 km |
| CataniaCTA | 1 h 40 m €41-45 BLQ · 6 km | 2 h 10 m no fares BSL · 81 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 10 m no fares BLQ · 6 km | 2 h 5 m €158-220 1 stop ZRH · 9 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 30 m €637-650 VCE · 138 km | 8 h 5 m €606-782 1 stop ZRH · 9 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 5 h 55 m no fares BLQ · 6 km | 6 h 15 m €232-366 1 stop ZRH · 9 km |
| MaleMLE | 9 h 35 m no fares VRN · 106 km | 9 h 50 m no fares ZRH · 9 km |
| CancunCUN | 11 h 10 m no fares VRN · 106 km | 10 h 55 m no fares ZRH · 9 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 | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Italian | French, German, Italian, Romansh |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Swiss Franc (CHF) |
| Sockets | CFL230 V, 50 Hz | CJ230 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 | 408 m |
| Main airport | Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre97 non-stop destinations | Zürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre181 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 10 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Bologna | Zurich |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 387,971 | 452,421 |
| People per km² | 2,754 | 5,147 |
| Museums within 10 km | 66 | 63 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
| 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 Zurich somewhere new.