Genoa: S. Lorenzo Cathedral

I have finished a hat, but it was so miserable and rainy today that I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to whip out my gorilla pod and strike a pose. Instead, here are some photos of Genoa's S. Lorenzo Cathedral. It has been likened to 'a giant humbug'...

The image on the bottom right shows what appears to be a small dog carved into the space between two spindly columns, on the right side of the façade. Someone told me a story about it which I have now entirely forgotten, but I expect it was something along the lines of Greyfriar's Bobby, or, for that matter, Hachiko, whose bronze likeness surveys Shibuya station, near my childhood home in Tokyo. These canines are pretty clever at getting themselves immortalised, it seems to me.