Heading north out of Roma en route to Tuscany, our first stop was Orvieto in the province of Umbria, which sits between Lazio (where Rome is) and Toscana (our destination and base for four nights).

Orvieto is a hilltop town as many medieval towns are, which is accessed by a very steep funicular railway.

And yet... somehow they also built this; the cathedral (Duomo) that dominates the town square. I am not really a "places of worship" kind of guy but it was hard not to be impressed by the dedication shown in constructing this.

It's often too easy to look at a building and just see the general shape of it. Uh, church. Uh, university building. Uh, hotel. But if you really look at the ornate detail on a building like this... someone imagined this. Every illustration, every texture in the marble, every carving. Then people set about building it. For years.

We live in a world where we have far more information than we can handle thrown at us and I think that is why so many people lose the detail of things now. They look at things – buildings, sculptures, art – but don't really see them because time is ticking and there is more information that will be hitting you in the face at any moment. But with a building like this in a place like this... it's sometimes worth taking that extra moment to just contemplate what you're seeing, and what it says about all of the people who put their lives and skills into it.