We got a cab there which was €24 but the bus back was a cheap option at €1.50. The climb is steep so we chose a taxi from our hotel and we walked down the portico door San Luca to get the bus back. The cathedral has a stunning altar which can be almost gothic in nature with its black and gold facade. It's free to enter and photographs are allowed we left a donation. The walk down was relatively cool as the arches and thick walls keep the heat off it was a sweLtering 80deg the day we went. Thoroughly worth the visit and be aware of your fitness level to climb 660 arches and steps and come down again. There was a mini train that went up and down but we did not see it. Once you arrive back into the small town there isn't much to see so we got the Bus 20 back to Bologna and got off at the Piazza Maggoire. Bus tickets can be purchased at any newsagent and a very economical Fay of getting around Italian cities.

The Santuario di Madonna di San Luca is a very much worthwhile half-day trip that can be comfortbaly reached by public transportation from the city center, or even by foot, as it is quite the hike, but definitely walkable. We actually enjoyed the trip with the little city tram, as it gave us a good impression of other parts of beautiful Bologna that aren't necessarily located in the historic city center. As for the Santuario itself is it located on a nice hill just outside the city in the countryside hosting the important Madonna icon there. Of course its touristic, but most things worth visiting are, so don't be taken aback by this fact, just keep it in mind.

The Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca dates from 1723, a project by Carlo Francesco Dotti, one of the most important architects in the Papal States in the 18th century. Inside the basilica’s is the ‘treasure’, an image of a black Virgin Mary with Child, supposedly painted by St Luke. Tradition holds that in the 12th-century, a pilgrim from the Byzantine empire came to Bologna with an icon of the Virgin from the temple of Saint Sofia in Constantinople.