We bet you didn’t know that there is such a thing as a clock that goes backward in Florence, did you? Well, we admit it took us by surprise, too. If you want to see it, you just need to visit the town’s duomo, Santa Maria del Fiore – yes, the same one with Giotto’s bell tower and Brunelleschi’s dome.

Inside, surrounded by colorful marbles and the grandiose beauty of its simple, yet majestic gothic vaults, you’ll find a curious clock, created and painted by famous Italian Renaissance painter Paolo Uccello. Born Paolo di Dono in 1397, Vasari – who wrote a series of “Lives” of artists – tells us that the nickname “uccello” comes from his passion for painting animals, birds in particular (that’s what “uccello” means in Italian).