Places calebwakeham Wants to Go

This 6th-century church has the largest and best-preserved collection of Byzantine mosaics outside Constantinople.

This amazingly preserved Doric temple was abandoned before it was ever completed.

A fascinating assortment of cave dwellings, medieval ruins, and sarcophagi are being devoured by the forest.

Every inch of this chapel is covered in craftsmanship from across the world.

Built to repay the sins of the father, this church is home to one of the most valuable works of Western art.

This entire town moved to a safe location after it was devastated by an earthquake, but the remains of the original town are still around.

Ham is serious business at the Prosciutto Museum-Serious, delicious business.

Ancient snack bar of the Roman Empire re-opened.

The Pope’s secret escape route.

One of several skulls claiming to belong to the beheaded St. John the Baptist is on display at this Roman church.

The remains of a town so thoroughly destroyed by French forces that the citizens simply left.

A complex, nine-layer maze on the grounds of a Venetian doge's playground.

Five candy-colored villages on the Italian Riviera.

Abandoned medieval hill town.

The doodles of a genius line the walls of a secret room under the Medici Chapel, where they were hidden for nearly 500 years.

An Italian hillside ghost town.

As can be expected from a centuries-old church built in a canal city, the undercroft of this house of worship is beautifully flooded.

The yawning maw of this pagan visage is said to bite off the hands of liars.

Rome’s legendary peephole vista is also a former Crusader stronghold.

A master of trompe-l'oeil creates a stunning, tourist-fooling dome out of a flat ceiling.

Renaissance villa and gardens complete with a tormented colossus.

Stalactites and stalagmites in a beautifully lit cave.

Pompeii's less famous neighbor is still revealing her secrets.

Architectureal fantasy quarter of Rome.