The Palazzo dello Spagnolo

This guide to the Palazzo dello Spagnolo in Naples starts with a nickname Neapolitans gave the building's own staircase when it rose in 1738, levata sotto, move out from under it, certain the double ramps crossing open air on hanging arches would collapse. It follows architect Ferdinando Sanfelice, obsessed with staircases, who broke with convention by putting his stair in full view and splitting it into two ramps later nicknamed hawk wings for their curving shape. Stand in the octagonal courtyard and look up at the arches shifting from plane to plane as they rise.