Basic questions about setting up https in Apache

Although I've seen https in URLs countless times, I've never really explored in to how to set up such a thing.

When people say "setting up SSL", this is what they're talking about, right? I mean the end result will be the use of https in the URL?

I know if I called up my web host and told them I'd like my URL to be https instead of just http, they'll do it for me, but is this something I can do on my local Apache server as well? Is it hard to set this up?

Thanks.