“DO You KNOW WHAT YOU JUST PAID FOR?” says I looking at the sign behind the teller’s head as he pays his 6 euro each. and I repeat DO You KNOW WHAT YOIU JUST PAID FOR?”, and he looks at me as if I have a third horn growing out of my head , nods his head yes, entrance into the Do mo. “Yes but.” I stammer and around the corner we ago to begin our ascension to the top all 463 steps., yes 463 step , spiral with perhaps two landings one way, I am thinking to my self OMG , he’s going to die and have a heart attack on me, or OMG can I make it? or “HOLY CRAPPE” as Frank would say (the father character in Everybody Loves Raymond){Lord Forgive me}. SO we go about 200 steps and we are huffing and a puffing and we make it to the first level where we can walk around the top of the rotunda and see the frescos on the ceiling. Is this it I pray? Oh no. The lord isn’t done with me yet.” Up and again we go and as we go up further and further where the oxygen seems to get thinner and thinner and the steps get narrower and narrower and there are no hand rails, we just step and breathe sand step and breathe. and OH NO there are people coming the other way, they are coming down. “what do they want me to do melt into the pavement? This ought to be fun… SO I slide my bum against the wall. and inhale. My legs are crying , my feet are crying to my legs saying what are they doing to us and my feet are saying I don’t know, and my back is screaming will you two shut up I can’t think to stand up straight. and my little stomach is screaming will you all shut up. I haven’t’ eaten in 3 hours you know I have to eat every three hours I need energy I need food. I am dying in here” Somebody help me! Thank goodness we find a landing and I double over. I look at my husband The Big Kahuna, the Big Idiot who got me here saying
I cannot make it, you go without me, I’m dying here I need to eat, I need… I need, ahhhhhh. He sets me against the wall people are coming down the stairs. they are asking if I am ok. Here I am in the dark staircase eating half a banana, a couple of peanut butter crackers. I thought it was my last meal. some people come down from the top. They speak english. I must have looked at them with my big brown sad eyes because they said “its not much further can you see the light up there?”… SO after a swish of water and a tug from the Big Kahuna off we go up those stairs. Would you believe it? 22 freaking stairs, we reach the top, we found the light, we went thru the roof (floor) there it was . the rain had stopped and we saw it. All of Florence, the red tile rooftops, the city, the honking of horns, the Ponte del Vecchico Bridge, The green lush hills with trees of color, the bustling city and all Tuscany could offer from a rooftop.
After 30 minutes of touring the small circle we headed back down the same staircase whence we came. yes we felt the pain, we huffed, we puffed, we hugged the wall, we passed for others, we were passed by some younger people, the teenagers were whining “OMG , OMG where is it This hurts, I should have never done this.”. Kahuna tells them” I’m 60 years old If I can do it you can do it”, later on as we make our descent we meet more climbers who have that same wild eyed look we did like “OMG what have I done, In their eyes”
I said’ if I can do it you can DO IT”. We continued to make our way down and down and down. It took FOREVER! Funny thing, by the time we made it back to ground level and got outside the church?
My legs, my feet, my back, they all finally revolted. They all turned to jelly, I couldn’t; stand up!. I told Kahuna. I’m going down.” He says “Oh no you are not” He sat down on a fence rung of the church and made me sit on his lap and we sat there until the feelings if “jello” passed thru my body” During this most unconventional time a beggar woman came over to beg the senora for money for a relative of a crippled picture of a man( WHOSE PICTURE I SWEAR I have seen on the Internet somewhere prior) I couldn’t understand her, and she finally left us alone. Took about 15 min we got composed and walked on to another piazza to finish our tours.
Were the 1000 steps worth it? In the long run YES!
Would I do it again? NO
But 1 picture is worth 100 steps!
Posted by bettyb00p1bigkahuna 
Posted by bettyb00p1bigkahuna 
Posted by bettyb00p1bigkahuna 
bettyb00p1bigkahuna