A treasure trove of Renaissance-era funerary art in a Roman church built on top of Nero's grave.

This strange bovine gargoyle is said to have been put in as a passive aggressive form of revenge.

A cave in southern Italy adorned with thousand-year-old Biblical frescoes existed in obscurity until fairly recently.

Roman-era ships unearthed...

A star-shaped fortress town fort built in the geometric model of the Renaissance utopian city.

Italian poet Dante Alighieri is entombed in this small mausoleum in Ravenna, and his hometown of Florence has never been too happy about it.

People have been living in the cave houses on this Italian hillside since the Neolithic era.

An incredible menagerie of more than 3 million taxidermied animals at the oldest science museum in Europe.

Erotic art covers the walls of the largest ancient pleasure palace.

Ancient snack bar of the Roman Empire re-opened.

This bronze boar's snout has been rubbed to a golden sheen by visitors seeking good fortune.

The Pope’s secret escape route.

Venice's island of the dead.

This picturesque Umbrian city has a subterranean side that has long remained hidden.

This ritzy Italian market is built around a statue of an unforgiven heretic who was burned for his belief in an endless universe.

Go inside to really appreciate this 500-year-old technological masterpiece.

The final resting place of the poets Shelley and Keats.

The oldest operating pharmacy in the world features 800-year-old recipes.

The last moments of the ill-fated Pompeiians, frozen forever in plaster.

2300-year-old Roman road connecting the empire.

The glowing blue Nymphaeum of Emperor Tiberius.

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

This Venice bookstore has resigned itself to constant flooding by keeping its books in bathtubs and boats.

Hundreds of lucky felines haunt the ruins where Caesar was murdered.