The building that I like to call “my church” because I dedicated nearly a decade of my life to researching and writing about it, Brunelleschi’s Basilica of Santo Spirito in Florence, Italy, is one of the defining architectural works of the Renaissance. The building of this great church was a perfect historical storm – a celebrity architect, a district of well-known, wealthy and competitive patrons hoping to assert themselves through chapel patronage within the church, an uncertain architectural inheritance left by Brunelleschi upon his death, and citywide factionalism championing and repudiating Brunelleschi’s alleged design intentions for the church. Mamma mia, how could such a mess have produced such a beautiful church? Buona visita!