Baraccano is not a village, it is a corner of Bologna: a gate in the old thirteenth-century walls where the Via Santo Stefano runs out of the centre. The name comes from the barbican that once defended it. Next to the gate stands the small sanctuary of the Madonna del Baraccano, a Renaissance church whose fresco of the Virgin drew pilgrims after a reported miracle, and beside it a lovely little courtyard, a place most visitors walk straight past on the way to the Two Towers.
Bologna rewards that kind of slow looking. The city is famous for its porticoes, roughly forty kilometres of them in the historic centre, which UNESCO recognised in 2021, and the long covered walk up to the sanctuary of San Luca on the hill is the famous example. The old university, the oldest in the Western world according to its own proud claim, still gives the place a young, loud energy in the evenings. And the food is, simply, serious: tagliatelle with ragù, tortellini in broth, mortadella, and the sort of lasagne that has no business being cheap.
For riders, the main thing to know is that the historic centre is a limited-traffic zone watched by cameras, and fines arrive by post weeks later. The practical answer is to leave the bike outside the ring, in one of the supervised parking areas, and walk. Baraccano itself is just inside the line of the old walls, so approach with care and read the signs. Fuel is plentiful anywhere on the ring road and in the suburbs; Bologna has more than three hundred thousand people, and it is never short of pumps.
The rides from here head off in two quite different directions. To the west, the pale gypsum outcrops around Zola Predosa, known as the Gessi, give the first hint of the unusual geology of the Emilian hills: soft white rock, sinkholes, small caves. South, the Apennines begin almost at the city's back door, and the road over the Futa or Raticosa passes toward Tuscany is a classic day for anyone with a free weekend.
Early morning is best if you want the city to yourself. The light on the red-brick arcades is warm, the cafés are opening, and the traffic has not yet found its stride.