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

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

Tiny museum with unusual specimens.

The marble facade hides a little-known medical museum with early surgical instruments and rare copies of canonical texts.

Despite their macabre past, these hooks are said to bring good luck to those who touch them.

According to tradition this is the oldest church in Venice, but its actual age is a mystery.

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

100 year tradition of fist fights, marked by marble footsteps.

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

The only museum with its curator—and her pets—buried inside.

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

This deconsecrated church has seen many uses, from a tobacco storehouse to a cinema.

Two stone columns flank the grand Venice square, but there were supposed to be three.

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

An extensive collection of reliquaries containing the bones of saints housed in the largest Catholic church in Venice.

This Roman statue is missing a limb from when the Venetians stole it from Constantinople during the Crusades.

An iron dragon with a long neck covered in feathery scales perched above one of Venice's most popular squares.

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

A historic cavernous cistern lies hidden behind a wall at San Marino’s stamp and coin museum.

The smaller of the three towers of San Marino is a former prison inaccessible from the ground level.

High in the clouds of San Marino sits an ancient tower with some curious prisoner graffiti.

Where members of the Crossbow Corps of San Marino demonstrate their skills.

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

This shining multicolored metro station deep under Naples is said to be the most beautiful in Europe.