If you have to shoot in bright sunlight, make sure the sun is at your back. This is particularly true of opaque subject like architecture. With translucent subjects like leaves and sheer fabric, backlighting works well. The behind buildings usually only works at sunrise and sunset so the subjects become silhouettes. In this photograph from Santorini, Greece, front lighting on the church was the best case scenario.
The settings for this picture were 1/500, f/5.0, 100 ISO, and I used a 70-1200mm lens set to 150mm. I will be leading a photo tour to Greece and Santorini in 2016.