They were in action on the Duomo two years ago (article here) and this evening if anybody had happened to look up at the Cathedral they would have spotted an unusual sight once again – a couple of climbers scaling down the face of the Duomo bell tower.
As you can hear in the interview recorded at the top of the Duomo, the two climbers were there to remove plants which had been growing on the side of the tower and were starting to become a possible hazard as the roots dug into the centuries old stone work.
The experts on hand were not sure how the plants managed to get to such a high position, it could have been wind of birds moving seeds but either way, they had to go.
Abseiling from German abseilen, meaning “to rope down”, also called rappelling, is the controlled descent of a vertical drop, such as a rock face, using a rope. Climbers use this technique when a cliff or slope is too steep and/or dangerous to descend without protection.
