Parma’s Piazza del Duomo is one of those frustrating Italian main squares where there’s simply too much awe to fit in one perfect photo. The octagonal Battistero (Baptistry) soars skyward in a Romanesque-Gothic marriage of pink marble and Medieval might. Off its southern flank, the 63m-high bell tower of the Duomo (main cathedral), hugs the main nave like a child clinging to papa.

As one ambles about the square for that ideal, Instagrammable angle, the realization comes on fast and furious: without a wide-angle lens or other professional trickery, these two showcases of 12^th Century mastery cannot easily be corralled into a money shot.