Orvieto Cathedral (Duomo)

The Duomo of Orvieto is one of the great Gothic cathedrals of Italy, and the facade is arguably the most spectacular in the country. The black-and-white striped marble structure is covered in gold mosaics, relief carvings, and bas-reliefs by Lorenzo Maitani — four enormous bronze reliefs depicting scenes from Genesis and the Last Judgment run along the lower facade, full of extraordinary detail. Stand well back in the piazza to take it all in.

Inside, the most important space is the Cappella di San Brizio, off the right transept, which contains Luca Signorelli's frescoes of the Last Judgment (1499–1504). These enormous, viscerally powerful paintings — muscular figures rising from the dead, demons dragging the damned into hell — are considered his masterpiece and are said to have directly influenced Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling. The fee to enter the chapel is separate from the cathedral itself.

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A story
The cathedral was begun in 1290, ostensibly to house a relic from the Miracle of Bolsena — a bleeding Communion host that had supposedly proved the doctrine of transubstantiation in 1263. Pope Urban IV, who was in Orvieto at the time, used the miracle to commission Thomas Aquinas to write the Corpus Christi liturgy, and then ordered the Duomo built. The entire enterprise took 300 years and involved almost every major architect and artist in central Italy.