A Forest of Spires Can Inspire | Travel

The view on the way up to the roof of the Duomo di Milano. Digital art by Audrie Z. Schaller from her original photo.

Originally published on Substack by MiBrava with Audrie Z

If you watched the broadcast coverage of the 2026 Olympics, you saw the backdrop of the spectacular Duomo di Milano (or Cathedral of Milan) used by the network’s main broadcast center.

Milan was our starting and ending point for our first trip of several trips to Florence and Venice. Our twelve-year-old son accompanied us on this and a subsequent trip to Italy—a benefit of a homeschooling schedule, but that’s another story.

One of the best memories from this trip was the walk up to the roof of the Cathedral. In my latter 50s at the time, with a chronic back problem and hence more weight than I was happy with, I pondered the ascent. Sure, you can take a lift up to the first level, avoiding the first 251 steps, but the second level and roof were definitely going to require stairs and stamina. Oh, for the days I was an in-shape field hockey player. Taking the lift would bruise my ego, but would be the sensible thing to do.

We skipped the lift (I’m a bit stubborn, as you will learn in future musings). I was equally breathless from keeping up with my son and the jaw-dropping views. I took many photos on the terraces and steps on the way up, both to capture this experience and (bonus senior traveler tip) have an excuse to stop for a breather. This latter tip is a go-to move now that I’m well into my 60s. Trust me, it saves your body AND keeps your ego intact.

My son—a budding photographer at the time who would soon go on to win a statewide homeschool photography contest with a photo from Murano—had an inexpensive camera to experiment with his art. I was relegated to the limits of a cellphone camera of 2014. Neither of us got the crisp photos we would have wanted, but I later embraced digital art to improve a photo of the flying buttresses. I think it came out well, if imperfect. We have it printed and matted at home.

But my favorite photo? The less-than-perfect one of my son leaning on the rail, pictured amid the forest of spires and flying buttresses.

It reminds me that we need to start traveling young, to see both the ordinary and the fantastical of the world

To learn that not everyone lives the way we do. They might eat different food, worship or dress differently, be more introverted or extroverted as a culture, and perhaps even look different. My son came away from this trip with an intense love of architecture, photography, and a unique perspective of how to capture an image; a passion for gelato; a few words of Italian; and a request for me to cook him octopus at home (this last bit hasn’t happened yet. I’m not a fan).

Can you picture yourself leaning in to this view? There is no reason you cannot.

For those of us of a “certain age,”

I believe we should continue traveling and learning—adapting to our abilities and overcoming obstacles as we can.

I strongly believe we have an obligation to spark a love of travel in the younger generation. It’s wonderful that technology can take them anywhere, virtually. It’s a completely different thing than immersing oneself in a culture by watching a craftsman make a mosaic in an ancient tradition; “feeling” the biodiversity of a region on your skin by running your bare feet through the sand and soil; catching the aroma and chatter of a dinner being prepared through the back window of your flat; or hearing a call to prayer echo through alleyways or a choir fill a historic cathedral.

We should also demonstrate how WE appreciate the differences around us and the world by continuing to add to our lived experiences.

The world awaits. Octopus is optional.