Bologna to Firenze by bike

Sunday, March the 22nd, 2026, I set off for an adventure never tried before. Bologna to Firenze by bike. 80.81kms in a beeline. Many more otherwise.

I tried to minimize my equipment for the sake of lightness. The clothes I chose for the job were meant to keep me warm for the first cold hours of the ride and not make me sweat too much for when real action would happen. I had jeans and skateboarding shoes and then a tshirt, a nerdy flannel shirt, an acrylic sweater and a rain jacket. In my backpack there were:

• A Leatherman Wingman utility tool.
• A wheel pump.
• 1 air tube.
• Some allen keys for adjustments.
• 2 3d-printed disc brake spacer pads.
• 1 plastic water bottle with less than 500ml of sparkling water.
• Some paper tissues.
• 1 orange for a snack.

In the days before the go, I also prepared an itinerary, laying checkpoints every so much distance and climb.

Everything was set. The start of this adventure, as for the Via degli Dei, is Piazza Maggiore, Bologna. I arrived there at 7:16AM, reset the odometer and took one the worst pictures of Piazza Maggiore that will ever be taken.

But it wasn't the moment for an artistic shot. Time was already running late: I had a train to get that very night, the Regionale 17852 from Firenze Santa Maria Novella back to Bologna Centrale. Of course the turn-ups of this hike made me realize how stupid I was to book a train back before being even remotely close to my destination.

Out of the center from Porta Saragozza and full speed to Parco Talon. Then I had to reconsider my plan, because the road I was following from Google Maps ceased to exist.

I arrived from north, passed the bridge, and arrived at the area marked with the circle. Basically, there, the trail gradually turned into the river. I tried another way, now marked with an X, which at the time seemed to be the entrance of a bike lane of the Eurovelo system. It was a completely inaccessible construction work site. I didn't want to break in or anything, so I backtracked to the bridge, and took the third way, the one that I really didn't want to do, the ACTUAL Via degli Dei.

At this point I've got to talk about my mountain bike: an unnamed 27" hardtail with 100mm travel, two different types of oil brakes, a 9x3 Shimano Deore XT gear system and some pretty solid gravel tires from Kenda, that I got second handed for 165€.

I have upgraded the bike pretty soon with a pair of awesome flat aluminium pedals, the aforementioned odometer, a telescopic 125mm seatpost (with a button under the saddle, that makes you do a pretty weird gesture when adjusting it) and some 3d-printed mounts to carry a very thin 15€ u-lock. Also, I bought the bike without a saddle, so we could say that the current saddle is also an upgrade...

Here you can see her in Ferrara. That was the first adventure I did on this bike, some 50kms of flat bike lanes coasting the Bologna SP4 road, with train stations everywhere. A very different setting. Now we were dwelling into the jungle. I was scared that the air tubes would puncture in the woods (I only watched a video on how to dismount wheels with disc brakes the night before) but luckily that didn't happen.

Checkpoint A was put on the map only for telling google maps where to trace the path, to avoid the main car roads. It turned out to be one of the most difficult checkpoints, and took almost 2 hours of getting though dense woods.

The way to B had to be sped up by a little, to arrive there by 10AM. The location could have been any one ever, but I had to chose the Blogna locality in the municipality of Monzuno (BO). It just felt fitting. That's where I did my first stop to eat an orange.

Speaking of food, this is what I had planned for the day:

1. Breakfast (I forgot what I had, but it was nothing special. And I don't have much for breakfast on a daily basis)
2. Snack with the orange in Blogna.
3. Lunch at Castiglione dei Pepoli, just after the longest climbs.
4. Dinner in Firenze

You can understand, there was a slight underestimation of the right calorie intake. And approaching the Appenino tosco-emiliano the roads surely got steeper.

I stopped after the checkpoint C, at a cafe on the SP325, probably 5 minutes before it closed. There I got 2 pastry desserts on the spot and 1 packaged snack to eat along the way, all for €3.60. I ate the other snack as soon as I got out of the store.

That boost was very needed, as the most difficult part of the ride was about to begin. My speed came down from 25km/h to 10, to 5 in some points. I can hardly remember anything of that part, except when a convoy of vintage hatchbacks overtook me. I'm trying my best to remember what model of a car that was, but to be fair that might have never happened and I was seriosuly tripping.

Somehow I arrived to my checkpoint D, in Castiglione dei Pepoli (BO), the last town of Emilia Romagna, at 1:15PM. The perfect time for lunch. The diner I planned to go to was closed, so I took the opportunity to visit a higher end restaurant, Il Fungo. I was not really dressed for the occasion, for all the mud on my shoes and pants that stuck from the Via degli Dei, but there I had some amazing pappardelle al ragù di cinghiale and some grilled meat with scaglie di parmigiamo, aceto balsamico e radicchio. This one is untranslatable.

All of that, bread and one liter of sparkling water, for €38.50. If you think that this price is a lot, you've got to consider that a train from Bologna to Firenze can go for as much as €120...

After a good hour of rest I went back on my way, ready for the last spike of climb. And went pretty smooth, thanks to all the new energy I was fueled with. From there on it was all downhill. I entered Tuscany at 40km/h on the SR325, surrounded by some amazing hilly sceneries, that I could finally enjoy.

I surpassed checkpoint E within an hour and an half, and arrived at the entrance of Prato at around 4:30PM. It did feel like a relief. Then I stopped at an Esselunga supermarket to celebrate, and that's when my legs started to report their status. Everything kind of hurt.

It's to be noted that those 50kms to Ferrara I talked about before was the farthest I've ever did on any bike. Now, arriving in Prato marked the 100kms of the adventure. I am definitely not trained for this or any other sportsy challenges. I was seriously considering to take a train from Prato to Florence, but messaging some friends convinced me otherwise. I got a little orange juice bottle for €0.80 and started riding again.

So the adventure continued coasting the banks of the Bisenzio river in Prato, following the Sesto Fiorentino industrial area, going through the Prato delle Cascine, then the Lungarno Amerigo Vespucci, then facing Ponte Vecchio, then turning left, then right and left again.

At 6:45PM, after 11 hours and 29 minutes, after 126kms and almost 900 meters of climb, I was in Piazza della Signoria in Firenze!

In the piazza there was also my girlfriend Aurélie, that came to Firenze by a different means of transport the day before to visit a friend. She said that she would offer me a pizza if I made it there. That's why I did.