Not every checkpoint on a ride needs to be old. MamBo, the Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, opened in 2007 in a former municipal bakery on the northern edge of the old centre, and the building says a lot about how Bologna thinks. The city turned the factory where it once baked bread for its people into a home for twentieth-century and contemporary art, with a strong collection of Giorgio Morandi, the painter who spent his whole life in this town painting bottles and jugs on a table, and whose little house lies not far away.
Bologna itself is a joy for anyone who likes a city that works. The porticoes, nearly forty kilometres of covered arcades, were added to UNESCO's list in 2021, and they make walking pleasant in any weather. The two leaning towers, Asinelli and Garisenda, are the symbol, and the old university, founded in the eleventh century and often called the oldest in the world, still fills the streets with students. Bologna is nicknamed la Grassa, the fat, for its food, and it earns it: tortellini in broth, tagliatelle al ragù, mortadella, and a glass of Pignoletto.
For a rider, Bologna is a place for care. The historic centre is a restricted traffic zone with cameras, and fines arrive by post months after you have gone home, so park outside and walk or take a bus. The ring roads and the Via Emilia are busy, and trams, cyclists and delivery scooters keep you alert. Fuel is everywhere, and nearby Casalecchio di Reno on the Reno river has more of the same.
The reward is leaving it behind. A short ride south-west puts you on the winding roads of the Apennines, with the Porrettana and the old roads through Sasso Marconi climbing past chestnut woods and little villages. The Tuscan border lies a morning away, and Cafaggiolo in the Mugello, the Medici villa on the ride list, makes a handsome destination for a day.
Come in spring or autumn, when the air is clear and the terracotta roofs hold the light.