Starting from Bologna, does anyone know anywhere I can base myself in Italy for a few days’ cycling?

Not Riccione – I’ll have been there already by then:

Faenza seems possible?

Looking for the following:
* Accessible by public transport from Bologna (within a couple of hours)
* A bike rental shop to get a road bike from
* Nice roads (of course :))

Thanks!

A little bump for the Sunday evening espresso listeners?
🙂

Bergamo/Como.

Probably closer to 2.5h by train but could head to the südtirol eg Bolzano. Last time I cycled there was just pootling around as a kid but incredible scenery & buttery smooth roads. Presumably plenty of scope for bike hire.

Faenza wouldn’t be a bad base to start. Good rail access from Bologna. It’s at the foot of the appenini where there are some great roads and the food in the region is incredible.
A classic roadie day out would be to catch the old train through the mountains via Brishigella, Mugello, etc to Firenze and cycle back.
Marco Pantani was local too, there is a museum at Cesanatico which is interesting even if you’re not into road bikes (like me).
Can’t think off hand of a shop where you could hire a decent bike though.

Thanks all.

Dilwyn, I’ve been to Brisighella, it’s amazing.
I will probably go for this (ie Faenza). I have found a rental shop in Faenza.

I didn’t know about Pantini there. I knew about this guy, he promotes the area and Faenza a lot:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davide_Cassani

Have you ridden around there? I hired a mountain bike from Brisigella tourist office a couple of years ago, was superb. The countryside is so scenic.

I’ll research Bergamo/Como/Bolzano too, cheers guys.

I lived there for about ten years. So know the area well. I don’t really have much interest in road bikes though.
There is a decent shop called deka on the road out to the autostrada. I used to race downhill with the guy who owns it.
There is a really high end road bike shop called sessante al ora which has recently opened up in Milano marritima which is not to far away. They probably do organised rides. Italian roadies are pretty keen though.
For mountain biking I used to go up to a village called tredozio, there are some amazing trails round there, the mountain biking out of Faenza didn’t have a great deal of decent single track but was great scenery. You can go from Faenza to Brisighella off road.