Urban Hiking

Yesterday my friend Emily and I ventured up to the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca. It's a little over 6 km from my apartment (that's about 4 miles for you non-metric folks. aka me. Google is a wonderful thing). The walk is mostly through the city/neighborhoods but the last mile or mile and a half is uphill through the longest arcade of porticoes in the world. The hike definitely helped me justify the nutella I had for breakfast, but just when I thought it was getting kind of tough, we noticed this adorable couple walking in front of us. 

 If they could do it, so could we, right? Right! We kept going....

And going....

And we reached the top! It was a beautiful view and the most perfect kind of quiet. A totally peaceful, calm, tranquility.

THESE COLORS....THEY'RE REAL

Then this morning I went on run back to the place that we went with our program a few weeks ago. Remember? This one...

In case you were wondering, this is the perfect song to listen to whilst laying on this hill for an hour. Add in some Tallest Man on Earth, Head and the Heart, and Laura Marling and you pretty much get the gist of my playlist. I absolutely love the city, but I think escaping to these gorgeous places for a little bit has become one of my new favorite activities....

EDIT: I forgot to mention this the first time I posted, but on my way down the mountain/hill from my run I saw something that basically made my week. There are a lot of benches along the path and, as I was walking down I noticed something sitting on one. I went to investigate and found (an Italian version of) Big Sur by Jack Kerouac (who, if my roommates are any indication, is very popular here) sitting on the bench, ready to be picked up and read. And so I did, for a few pages. As I went down the hill I found three other Kerouac books, also just sitting on various benches. I absolutely love the idea of leaving a trail books you love for others to find and enjoy. Doing this is definitely going on my currently non-existant bucket list.

Ciao for now!