The Never Ending Climb

When I first learned that I would have the opportunity to walk the steps to the top of the Duomo, I was excited and looked forward to the challenge. During the first half of the steps, everything was going smoothly, then I got to the big opening in the middle where I walked around the Duomo to the other side. This is where my fear of heights set in, as looked down from the halfway mark to see people walking in the church looking like ants, I immediately got goosebumps. I backed up and shoved my spine against the concrete wall, with both hands spread out, they never left the crumbling concrete. The walls did not help my fears either, they were brittle, feeling as though they had been slowly decaying for hundreds of years and that they could fall apart any minute. I remember all throughout the walk there was little windows to look out of to see how high up you were, after the first window, I knew that I could not look out of it again or I wouldn’t be able to continue the climb. As we got higher and higher, the steps became more sketchy and the halls more narrow, at one point the steps began to feel more like a ladder because in order for me to ascend them I used all four of my limbs so I would not fall back onto the concrete surface. After finally reaching the top I realized all the trauma of getting up there was worth it, the view made me feel as though I was a bird flying high over all the buildings, and the people on the ground were hardly visible. After getting some pictures, the group decided it was time to go back down. Descending the steps was more scary than walking up them, the steepness of them made me constantly grip the railing to the point where I had white knuckles. Also, the bottom half of the stairs were spiral staircases, since I was nervous I descended them rather quickly. This descent made me dizzy, the kind of dizzy that one would feel after riding a wild rollercoaster. As I reached the bottom I felt the biggest sigh of relief that I have ever felt. Climbing up to the top of the Duomo gave me an adrenaline rush that lasted nearly an hour, and I could not be more happy that it was over or that I completed the journey.