Brunelleschi's dome

This guide to Brunelleschi's dome in Florence opens with the chief engineer abruptly refusing to show up to the scaffolding one morning, taking to his bed and claiming illness while work grinds to a halt below. It traces his two-decade rivalry with Lorenzo Ghiberti, going back to a bronze-doors competition Brunelleschi lost, and the moment he won over a room of skeptical judges with a dare involving a marble slab and an egg. Best heard standing in the square below, looking straight up at the brickwork overhead.