Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

This guide to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence centers on a goldsmith named Filippo Brunelleschi, twice thrown out of a meeting with the city's overseers for refusing to explain how he'd close the vast octagonal gap left open above the nave for a century. It traces his rivalry with Lorenzo Ghiberti, who had already beaten him in the competition for the baptistery doors across the square, and the terms Brunelleschi set before the commission was finally his in 1420. Best heard from the piazza, looking straight up at the dome overhead.