Why this ride
From Bologna it runs 288 km to Bologna; allow about 5 h 06 of riding. The stops in between: Bassa collina reggiana, Sabbioneta and back through Bassa collina reggiana. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
MamBo and Sabbioneta
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 288 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 06
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. MamBo
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.
Read the complete MamBo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
MamBo is where the day begins. Next is Bassa collina reggiana.
2. Bassa collina reggiana
The low hills south of Reggio Emilia, where the Po plain starts to ripple up toward the Apennines, hide a strange geology: outcrops of gypsum, the glittering crystalline rock left behind when ancient seas evaporated millions of years ago. Water dissolves gypsum easily, and over time it has carved caves, sinkholes and blind valleys into these hills. The Bassa Collina Reggiana, the low Reggio hill country, is part of the UNESCO site Evaporitic Karst and Caves of Northern Apennines, listed in 2023, and around Borzano, Albinea and Vezzano sul Crostolo you can see the white and grey gypsum cliffs poking through the woods and vineyards.
Read the complete Bassa collina reggiana write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bassa collina reggiana comes up about 85 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sabbioneta.
3. Sabbioneta
Sabbioneta is a Renaissance experiment: a whole town built from scratch in the second half of the sixteenth century by Vespasiano Gonzaga, a soldier, scholar and minor prince of the great Mantuan family, who wanted a capital laid out according to the ideals of the age. He got it. Inside its star-shaped walls the streets run in a regular grid, and in a few hundred metres you pass a ducal palace, a long gallery built to show off his collection of ancient sculpture, a summer palace, and one of the earliest purpose-built theatres in Europe, the Teatro all'Antica, designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi. Sabbioneta and Mantua were listed together by UNESCO in 2008 as two contrasting visions of the Renaissance city.
Read the complete Sabbioneta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 144 km into the recorded legs you reach Sabbioneta. Next is back through Bassa collina reggiana.
4. back through Bassa collina reggiana
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bassa collina reggiana write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Bassa collina reggiana, late in the day. Next is MamBo.
5. MamBo
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete MamBo write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at MamBo. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
MamBo to Bassa collina reggiana
MamBo → Bassa collina reggiana is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Bassa collina reggiana to Sabbioneta
Bassa collina reggiana → Sabbioneta is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sabbioneta to back through Bassa collina reggiana
Sabbioneta → back through Bassa collina reggiana is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bassa collina reggiana to MamBo
back through Bassa collina reggiana → MamBo is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.