. . . perhaps the best image of the absence of stale melancholy or wasted splendour, of the positive presence of what I have called temperate joy, in the Florentine impression and genius, is the bell-tower of Giotto which rises beside the Cathedral.

The bell tower, designed by Giotto in 1334, was completed in 1359, 22 years after his death. The work was continued under Andrea Pisano and Francesco Talenti who continued in repeating the marble decoration and the Gothtic ornamentation. The belltower, Campanile, is still a masterpiece of elegance.