I discovered I was afraid of heights while climbing down from the Duomo tower in Florence, Italy.

Florence skyline

She climbed the stone tower slowly with all of the other tourists, admiring the smooth worn stones along the wall. What an amazing feat, to build this beautiful tower with its spiral stair. At each landing, gazing out at the city of Florence she thought of those who dwelled there long ago and how their work was still in use today, how their art was known throughout the modern world.
The moments on the landings were brief because her ultimate goal was the top - the vista of the entire city. Climbing higher and higher, at least she reached the top. Walking about the viewing area she was taken aback by the beauty of the red tiled roofs, the winding streets, the view uninterrupted by a modern skyline of hard angled skyscrapers. Everything fit together as though each building held up the next, as though removing just one would turn the entire city to dust. Electrical wires were the only visible sign of the modern world along with a sprinkling of TV antennae. It had been worth the climb.

Little by little though the feeling of amazement subsided and was replaced. It began with the realization that standing nearer the edge created a physical change to her usually calm stomach. The idea of being at ground level became more and more attractive. When her companion suggested that it was probably time to head down, she agreed quickly.

The minute they reached the stairs, what seemed like a simple task suddenly became the challenge of a lifetime. While climbing up, she hadn't notice that the stairs followed up the tower walls in a spiral without a railing. The center of the stairway was non-existent, a doughnut hole of incredible depth surrounded by the same stone steps that she had benen admiring. While the normal etiquette is to stay on the right side of a stairway, she found this impossible. She clung to the tower walls, their smoothness offering nowhere to embed her fingertips. Just as she had gently run her hand across the cool stones she now searched them for handholds or anything to grab onto.

At first she slowly walked down in silence, embarrassed to admit to her friend that she wasn't sure she could make it. At the first landing she expressed how remarkable it was that there was no railing. On the way down to the next landing, she looked only at the wall. The center of nothingness seemed to become a living creature menacing her with every step. By the time they made it to third landing, she had to admit that she was petrified, uncertain how she would get down. She had never experienced anthing like this before but she knew she had to go on. As the descent continued, there were moments where she just stopped. Temporarily paralyzed by visions of certain death and scenes from Alfred Hitchcock movies, she clung to the wall and closed her eyes. After a few deep breaths and some dirty looks from the ascending tourists, she continued. Step by step the journey continued. It seemed to go on forever. It didn't really get any better as she got nearer to the bottom until the very end. In the last five feet she began to relax. Waves of relief mixed with embarrassment and self-awareness passed through her simultaneously. She had left youthful indestructibility at the top and had descended with a new paralyzing fear that she knew she could conquer.