The last day we were in Florence, Italy I was determined to figure out what this Duoma was all about.  My son had proudly climbed it and posted a photo on Instagram.


I attempted to do the same thing but the line was out of control long. We couldn’t speak the language so there was that issue as well.  We learned that there was a watch tower that was pretty much the same height without the lines that wrapped the building.  I made the wise decision to climb this instead.

I actually wasn’t by myself for the first flight of steps but my friend was struggling and said “go on and I will meet you at the base when you are through”.  It’s too bad she didn’t go about 12 more steps because she would have hit the first landing.  There was a great breeze and nice views from just this first landing.


As I climb from one landing to another dealing with narrow stairs, rude people slapping the bags in your face, pressing by you, no one really concerned about one another but not intentionally being mean, just self centered.  People were huffing and puffing and I kept walking with no issues.

I kept thinking WOW, two years ago I could never have done this.  This is clearly a benefit from walking every day for 20-30 minutes each day. It made me feel so proud of myself!