Places clpartin Wants to Go

The pile of books behind the dignified writer gave the statue a most undignified nickname.

Originally a leper colony, the island is now an Armenian monastery that's home to an incredible manuscript library and eclectic museum.

Where Venice's gondolas go for a tune-up.

Thousand-year-old Viking runes adorn an ancient Greek lion at the entrance to the Venetian Arsenal.

The small peaceful island off the Venice tourist circuit is where the city began more than 1,500 years ago.

Those who own or stay at this 500-year-old, allegedly cursed house often meet terrible fates.

This abandoned island off the Venetian coast has been a radical monastery, a political prison, and a secret Nazi base.

A sinister pyramid in the Frari contains the heart of the famous neoclassical sculptor.

The plague quarantine island home to the alleged "Vampire of Venice."

This palatial spiral staircase was so unusual the name "snail" was given to the noble family who built it.

Venice's "Island of the Mad."

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

This community on a small Venetian island has taken to painting their houses in bright neon hues.

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

This tiny islet has somehow housed an ancient temple, two monasteries, a church, a fortress, and a restaurant.

Buried next to Pompeii, this lesser-known Roman villa was the opulent vacation home of Emperor Nero's wife.

A former Roman town that was once the home of Scipio Africanus.

A popular legend claims that the famous pizza was invented at a restaurant in this alley.

This medieval city gate is now a blend of the past and the modern world.

The relics of dozens of martyrs are stored in a single chapel.

Suffocating dogs was a common spectacle in the fumes of this noxious cave.

An unusual "skull with ears" sits in the crypt of this small church tucked away at the end of a narrow alley.

The burial place of an obscure North African saint was turned into a macabre body preservation factory for the 17th-century Neapolitan elite.

In a city that boasts four separate inclined cable railways, this is one of the busiest funicular lines in the world.