Bologna Biking 1

Yippee!!! Another day of beautiful sunshine! To stay in biking shape for our upcoming cycling trip, we opt to visit one of Bologna’s iconic sites by bike - the Sanctuary of the Madonna of San Luca. The Sanctuary is on a hilltop almost 5 km outside of town and linked entirely by covered porticoes. These porticoes are ALL over Bologna. One could walk throughout town and all the way up to the Sanctuary entirely along a portico walkway. And that’s how most people get up there - some walk, some run (really), some crawl (usually a religious holiday), others take the adjacent road by city bus, or the silly tourist tram train, or car. We rode our bikes. Let me state that this hill is the grueling section of the annual bike race and has been part of the course for the Giro d’Italia. When the road leaves the center of town, it is non-stop uphill. We pedaled up the 11-15% grade sections ok, but the 18% grade section was just too steep especially when sharing the road with Lamberghini’s (a bright orange one sped by), Amazon delivery trucks, and a bunch of cars. We were also passed by an e-bike and a young buff man doing intervals on this hill (and he wasn’t even in his low gear). We did ride most of the hill and pushing the bikes up that 18% grade section was not a walk in the park. At the top we are wow’d by a view of the city below and by yet another over the top church interior. As an extra, I thought I’d give a nod to the workers that maintain the beautiful architecture exterior.