Churches & cathedrals in Italy

A circular hall 43.30 metres across and as many high, under a coffered dome that ends in an opening about 9 metres wide, whose ray of light falls on the axis of the door at noon; outside, sixteen Corinthian columns of grey and pink granite hold up the portico.

Borromini's nave, laid out as the heavenly Jerusalem with an apostle's statue before each of its twelve doors, and Jacopo Torriti's apse mosaic of the face of Christ above a jewelled cross. A cloister begun in 1222 keeps the medieval papal cathedra and what remains of Arnolfo di Cambio's tomb for Riccardo Annibaldi; the treasury museum shows the chains of Saint John the Evangelist and the cope Boniface VIII is said to have worn at the first Jubilee.

A series of circular portraits of the popes begun in the fifth century and continued to this day, an apse mosaic of Christ by Venetian masters from the 1220s, Arnolfo di Cambio's ciborium over the papal altar, and a 13th-century cloister of paired columns, some twisted, some decorated with mosaic.

Brunelleschi's dome, Giotto's bell tower, the Baptistery of San Giovanni, the terraces and the Opera del Duomo Museum in its 28 rooms, around the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.

Michelangelo's dome and Bernini's colonnade, over the place where Saint Peter, the first Pope, is believed to be buried.

The basilica, its Pala d'Oro, the Museum with the Loggia dei Cavalli, and the bell tower.

The rooftops among the spires, the Madonnina on the great spire, the stained glass windows, and the archaeological area and museum beside the cathedral.