The longest building in Bologna is not a palace or a church. It is a block of flats, curving along the edge of a district called Barca, on the western side of the city, and locals call it the train, il Treno. It was built in the 1960s as social housing, to a design by the architect Giuseppe Vaccaro, and it stretches for hundreds of metres in a single, slightly bent line, with a long row of balconies and a shared walkway. Whatever you think of postwar architecture, it was an ambitious attempt to house thousands of people in a planned community, and it is still a home today.
It is not a monument for admiring so much as a piece of the city you pass through. The district has shops, a park and a library, and cyclists use the paths, with a feel of being outside the historic centre and closer to everyday Bologna. A rider can pull in for a coffee, look at the long facade and get a sense of the city beyond the porticoes.
Just beyond lies Casalecchio di Reno, where the Reno river leaves the Apennines and enters the plain. The weir, the Chiusa di Casalecchio, is a medieval feat of hydraulic engineering that fed the canals of Bologna and drove its silk mills. The town is a lively one, with thirty-four thousand people, and has plenty of fuel and shops. From here the road up the Reno valley leads to the hills, and the old road to Florence, the Porrettana, climbs into the mountains with long bends and views of beech woods.
This is motorcycle country. The Ducati factory is on the other side of the city, and the hills of the Bolognese Apennines are full of bikes at weekends. The roads are twisty, the surfaces mostly good, and the scenery lovely, though speed checks are frequent and the locals ride fast. Take care on the bends where cyclists climb in the middle of the road.
Eat tigelle, small round breads filled with cured pork and cheese, or a plate of tortelloni. Spring and autumn are the best seasons, and late summer brings heat and haze. The ride goes on to the gentle foothills of Reggio Emilia, a quiet area of villages and vineyards.