I didn't know that it was possible to ascend the dome on the inside. I did know that some people have undertaken the perilous ascent on the outside. In her memoirs, the salon hostess Mme de Boigne, who was in Rome in the early 1790s, recounts that a Miss Taylor capriciously challenged her fiancé, a Mr. Bootle, to climb the dome even though he was afraid of heights. He did it in front of a crowd of spectators and then broke off their engagement on the spot, admonishing her that power should not be abused.
I, on the other hand, was not familiar with the anecdote narrated in the memoirs of the Countess De Boigne. So intersting. Thank you for bringing it to my attention!
I didn't know that it was possible to ascend the dome on the inside. I did know that some people have undertaken the perilous ascent on the outside. In her memoirs, the salon hostess Mme de Boigne, who was in Rome in the early 1790s, recounts that a Miss Taylor capriciously challenged her fiancé, a Mr. Bootle, to climb the dome even though he was afraid of heights. He did it in front of a crowd of spectators and then broke off their engagement on the spot, admonishing her that power should not be abused.
I, on the other hand, was not familiar with the anecdote narrated in the memoirs of the Countess De Boigne. So intersting. Thank you for bringing it to my attention!