Biking from Ferrara to Modena in Italy

skamen

Hi,

I just moved to Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy to teach English. I'm going to take the train to Ferrara to buy a road bike and I hope to bike back to Modena if the weather is nice. I'm planning on biking from Ferrara to Bologna, spending the night with friends in Bologna and then finishing off the trip back to Modena the next day. Do you have any route suggestions?

Do you have any general suggestions for road biking in Emilia-Romagna? I'd imagine that I will obviously want to avoid the autostrade. It looks like there are other roads besides the autostrade that go from Ferrara to Bologna and Bologna to Modena. I'm looking on google maps and I see a SS64 road that goes from Ferrara to Bologna and a SS9 that goes from Bologna to Modena. What kind of road is a SS? Would it be nice for cycling?

Thanks,

-Scott

xilios

I rode Modena to Ferrara in 2005 I mostly followed the river Panaro.
http://www.geocities.com/xilios/Week3.html
Its an easy and flat road, a good ride. SS roads are like D (district) roads, a couple pics on my page.
cheers

mtylerjr

Hi Skamen

Im an American, and I just moved to Emilia-Romagna last November. I live near Bologna.

My longest ride out here has been from Bologna to San Marino, through Ravenna and Rimini.

I've found that not all SS roads are bikeable. Specifically, on my trip I discovered to my dismay once I got to Ravenna that bicycles were banned from SS16 , and I had to improvise and take some side roads until I got to Lido Di Savio, where I could take coastal/side roads down to Rimini.

Some SS roads become very "expressway-like" so you really need to do a little checking before you go. In fact, I found this site doing exactly that - trying to search to see if SS309, from Ravenna up towards Venezia was bikeable. The SP roads are a better bet if you can find one that suits your needs. I took SP253/121 from Bologna to Ravenna.

I dont really have many tips for you - other than petrol/gas stations do not have anywhere near the selection of sports drinks or candy/energy bars that you would find in many other countries. Most have water, and water only, although some have sit-down cafes, which are not conducive to grab-and-go.

If you do bike from Ferarra to Bologna, let me know what route you take and how it was - since I am headed from Bologna to Venice, through Ferarra, and then to the coast via Commachio.

The ride from Rimini to the top of San Marino is nice.

mtylerjr

Oh.. SS9 from Bologna to Modena is very ugly, industrial, and depressing, unfortunately. We drove that way, once, when we first moved here, and it depressed us so much we didnt visit Modena again until last weekend (and we took the autostrade and paid the toll, just to avoid the depressing SS9 route)