WILLIS TOWER - SKYDECK CHICAGO

With its one hundred and ten floors and its 442 m height, the former Sears Tower was for a long time the highest tower in the world. It has a metal structure composed of nine vertical towers attached to each other, each of a different height, which gives it the appearance of a cigarette pack. It was inaugurated in 1973. First owned by the Sears company, it changed hands several times between 1995 and 2009, when Sears lost its rights to the building's name. The skyscraper now bears the name of its principal owner, the Willis Insurance Group.

After purchasing a ticket, you are shown an eight-minute video about the tower and Chicago. Then, you climb in the elevator which, in sixty seconds, propels you at a speed of 36 km/h to the Skydeck, on the 103rd floor and 412 m high. Why don't we go higher? Because above it there are five floors of machinery for the antennas and two floors for the radio transmission. But, from the 103rd floor, the view is clear, since you can see, on a clear day, up to 130 km around and the four surrounding states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin). The view of the Loop's skyscrapers is impressive; it's hard to make out the pedestrians. It's a great way to get a feel for the city and its neighborhoods, with telescopes and video screens providing information about the view. You can also risk putting your feet in the Ledge, a small balcony made of Plexiglas suspended above the void. If you are afraid of heights or do not like strong sensations, we advise you to boycott this part of the visit! No matter how much we tell you it's safe and you're perfectly safe, the glass has still cracked twice in the last five years, most recently in the summer of 2019. Rest assured, it is not the glass itself that broke (it can withstand up to 5 tons) but the protective screen installed over it, which is precisely to prevent scratches on the glass.

In the center of the Skydeck, you can see an exhibition about Chicago, its history, its music, its sports, its emblems. As a result of its success, the queue is sometimes quite long. Before going up, ask about the visibility conditions at the top, which can be very different at ground level and at 400 m altitude (no refund in case of bad visibility).