Bologna is a city built for walking in the rain. More than forty kilometres of covered arcades line its streets, some medieval, some Renaissance, some modern, and the Porticoes of Bologna received UNESCO status in 2021 as a distinctive urban form. They began as a practical fix: the university, founded in the eleventh century and often called the oldest in the world, drew so many students that the city needed more living space, and builders were allowed to extend rooms outward over the street on timber beams. Later they were rebuilt in brick and stone and required by law, so that people could move along any main street without getting wet.
The longest of all leads out of the city to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca on a hill south-west of the centre. It runs for nearly four kilometres and has around 660 arches, and climbing it on foot is a local ritual, particularly at the time of the annual procession of the icon. The Basilica at the top gives a view across the red roofs to the Po plain, and on a clear day you can see the Alps.
A motorbike in the old centre needs care. Much of it is a restricted traffic zone, and the porticoes themselves are for pedestrians, so ride outside the walls and walk. Cobbles, tram-free but bus-heavy streets and cyclists make the old town a bit of a maze, while the ring road, the tangenziale, is fast and often congested. Summer is hot and humid, and the arcades give welcome shade.
You need not worry about fuel, food or coffee, because Bologna, with more than three hundred and sixty thousand people, is full of all three, and the city is known as La Grassa, the fat one, for good reason. Tagliatelle with ragù, tortellini in broth, mortadella and lasagne with green pasta are all native to the city, and the wine bars serve Pignoletto with a plate of local cold cuts. Casalecchio di Reno, on the southern edge, is a larger suburb with petrol and shops, and the gateway to the Apennine roads.
Those roads are the reason so many riders come to the area: the hills south of Bologna offer curves in abundance, from the Futa and Raticosa passes toward Florence to the quieter valleys of the Reno and Setta.