Isfahan's great square is so large that the first time you walk into it from the bazaar side, your sense of scale goes briefly wrong. Meidan Emam, still widely known by its older name Naqsh-e Jahan, the image of the world, was laid out by Shah Abbas I when he made Isfahan the Safavid capital at the end of the sixteenth century. It is a long rectangle of two-storey arcades, a garden and fountains in the middle, and four buildings set into its sides that between them sum up an empire.
On the south end stands the Shah Mosque, now the Imam Mosque, its blue tilework so dense it seems to vibrate in the afternoon sun. On the east side sits the smaller Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, which has no minarets and a dome that shifts from cream to pink as the light moves. Facing it is the Ali Qapu palace, with a raised veranda where the shah watched polo matches played on the square itself; the stone goalposts are still there at each end. To the north, the Qeysarieh gateway leads into the covered bazaar, which runs on for kilometres of copper beaters, carpet dealers, spice sellers and tea houses.
The riding itself is city riding, nothing more romantic than that. Isfahan traffic is dense and inventive, motorcycles swarm in every gap, and you will want to park well outside the square, which is pedestrian, and walk in. The rewards are evening ones. As the heat goes out of the day, families spread blankets on the lawns, horse carriages loop around the fountains, and the arcades fill with people who have come to do nothing in particular for a few hours. Get there for the last hour of light and stay after dark when the domes are lit.
Food is part of the stop. Try the local beryani, which in Isfahan means minced lamb cooked flat and served in bread rather than the rice dish of the same name elsewhere, and take a box of gaz, the pistachio nougat the city is famous for, for later in the saddle. Water and tea are easy to find, and fuel is plentiful in the city.
If you have time, ride a few minutes south to the Zayandeh Rud and the old Safavid bridges, Si-o-Se Pol and Khaju, where people gather under the arches in the evening. The river is often dry these days, which says something about water in central Iran, but the bridges are worth seeing either way.
Before planning any trip, check current travel advice and the rules for bringing a foreign motorcycle into the country, which involve paperwork and can change.