Italian rescuers had to use a 298-foot ladder to bring the dead body of an American tourist from the top of the famous Brunelleschi Dome in Florence after he died from apparent heat exhaustion. The 67-year-old man had just climbed 463 steps through the labyrinth of narrow passages to reach what for many is a once-in-a-lifetime view. It took more than three hours to get his body to a point where it could be moved to a stretcher and then lifted down to street level. There is no elevator access to the Renaissance dome, and visitors are explicitly advised not to climb the dome if they have heart problems. Italy, along with most of southern Europe, is in the grips of a brutal heatwave that rescuers say may have contributed to the man’s demise.
