Cattedrale di Santa Maria Annunziata in Otranto

You're standing at Otranto Cathedral, the most important church in this little town on the heel of Italy's boot. Start with the façade. It has a simple shape, a bit like a hut with a pointed roof. In the middle is a big rose window with sixteen rays, in a style that feels half Gothic, half Arabic. That window only arrived after a disaster, which I'll get to in a moment. The Baroque main door below it dates from 1674. See the coat of arms above it? Two angels are holding it up. Now look at the sturdy square bell tower next door, built in the twelfth century from local white limestone. It probably once carried a taller structure for keeping watch over the sea.