San Michele in Bosco sits on a wooded hill just south of the city, on the site of an Olivetan monastery founded in the fourteenth century. The church facade — restrained Renaissance with a single rose window — opens onto a long stone terrace looking back over Bologna. The view is one of the best in the city, with the red rooftops, San Petronio, and the Two Towers picked out perfectly.
The octagonal cloister behind the church (sometimes accessible, sometimes closed depending on what the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute that now occupies the buildings is doing) was once decorated with frescoes by the Carracci. A handful are still visible. The walk up from Porta San Mamolo through Parco della Montagnola takes around 25 minutes.