Bocconi AFC or ESADE MSc in Finance?

Faced a similar dilemma a few years back. Decided to go with Bocconi.

My take: I would go with Bocconi for various reasons:

1. You already know you want to be in Italy, and there is no better school to do so than Bocconi (apart maybe from the likes of Oxbridge? But even then it would be a matter of debate...)
2. Reputation and career opps-wise, Bocconi is currently ahead of ESADE. At least in my current market (LDN BB IBD), Bocc >> ESADE (this is true for Finance, but also for AFC, IM, ESS...). My colleagues who did ESADE are very well prepared and are having no issues in transitioning to the buyside, but Bocconi is just seen at a different level
3. It's a two years program, which is useful in gaining more experience under your belt before graduation, and also allows you (pending COVID and any other plague!) to do exchange or DD in your second year

However, I do agree that ESADE may be a more exciting / fun experience. Therefore, I would also consider whether you did you undergrad at Bocconi or somewhere else in Italy.

If it's the former, points 1 and 2 above would be partially mitigated and you would have a more compelling story for "Why ESADE?", i.e. after three years you were looking for a new experience/environment.

This is of course just my 2 cents and I may be biased. But as long as we are discussing finance education, I really see no reason to pick ESADE over Bocc, unless you want to be in Spain (which I understand is not the case here...)