Giotto’s Campanile

There’s no doubt about it; the dome steals the show on the Piazza del Duomo, putting one of Italy’s most beautiful bell towers in the shade both figuratively and literally. The dome’s great size—364ft to the bronze ball —makes Giotto’s Campanile look small, though the 278ft is not exactly tiny.

Giotto was made director of the cathedral works in 1334, and his basic design was completed after his death (1337) by Andrea Pisano (central third) and Francesco Talenti (top third).

It is difficult to say whether Pisano and Talenti were entirely faithful to the plan. Giotto was an artist, not an engineer. After he died, his successors realized that the thing, then only 38ft high, was about to tumble over, a problem they overcame by doubling the thickness of the walls.