The long walk to San Luca, Bologna

Some very good friends of mine had travelled to Bologna earlier this year and were able to give us loads of recommendations of where to go and eat, which came in handy as I had done very little homework beforehand. One tip was to walk up to San Luca which was up in the hills over looking the city. I was a little nervous as the heat was in the 30s and I'm a little out of shape to say the least. I had suggested to OH that we took the bus up and walked down but he wasn't having any of it. So we set off through 666 arches to get that view.

It started off well enough on the flat but then we started to climb.

And climb. 

And climb. What these photos don't show are the sheer numbers of joggers who were running up and down these stairs!

Everytime you came to a corner you thought you must surely be there only to turn  the corner to find another set of arches to walk under. Even when you caught your first glance of San Luca you were faced with a final steep set of stairs before you were rewarded with an amazing view of the hills behind Bologna.

And I must admit I was pleased that I had made the effort as it wasn't as exhausting as I thought it would be. I was hot and sweaty but that was only to be expected given the heat and the 2.5 miles we had walked. In fact I think I shocked OH by saying that I wanted to walk back down. Watching the faces of people struggling up only made me feel even better as we made our way slowly back down into town with the promise of a beer at the end.