Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence

This guide to the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence begins with Galileo Galilei's burial in 1642, hidden away in a cramped room beside a novices' chapel because the Inquisition's condemnation kept him off consecrated ground. It follows his former student Vincenzo Viviani, who spent decades quietly lobbying Rome to let his teacher rest properly, without living to see it succeed. The story turns on what it eventually took to move Galileo's coffin into the main nave, generations after his death.