Morning rides in Florence

If I am remembering correctly: They needed a dome for the cathedral, but no one was sure how to build one that large without scaffolding or a pillar support. They held a competition to see who could come up with the best idea and get the contract. Brunelleschi not only won the competition, he beat his rival AND he essentially did it by saying "I know how to do it, but I'm not telling you how. You just have to hire me and see." And then he actually did what no one else could do at the time and left no plans behind, so people are still trying to figure out all of the logistics of how it worked.

^ Y'all should fact check all of this before you believe it. This is just what I remember from my fav college professor who was obsessed with it. Also, you can go there and actually walk up (a lot of) stairs and then walk around the bottom of the dome.