Places elainemellis Wants to Go

Overlooked amid the tourist bustle of Florence, this museum is dedicated to the craft of stone inlay.

An enigmatic modern marker left next to a historic Roman site.

The world's oldest surviving anatomical theater, where "the dead are pleased to help the living."

Two very green residential towers cleaning the air in one of Europe's most polluted cities.

Milan's duomo is covered in beautiful carving including a curious "dinosaur-like" beast.

Small on the outside, big on the inside, this church is an astonishing act of visual deception.

"The prettiest love letters in the world" ... or so said Lord Byron.

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

A fake medieval village in the middle of Turin.

Art and armour fill every inch of this rich kid's Italian villa.

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

More sculpture than building, this architecturally significant temple was built on the spot of Saint Peter's crucifixion.

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

An Italian ghost town that fought obscurity, until a mysterious illness brought it to its knees.

This Roman arch marks the location of an ancient gate at one of the Seven Hills of Rome.

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

Museum dedicated to literary greats of the Romantic Period is also the home in which Keats met his untimely end.

Secret refuge and museum of the Duke of Florence.

This private skyway is filled with art and was expanded explicitly so that Hitler could appreciate a river.

Installed in an act of one-upsmanship, the annual sundial in this church is also a symbolic victory for the Gregorian calendar.

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

The famous sculptor left his mark on this Italian wall in an internationally protected example of street art.

A Nesting Doll of Churches.

This hidden Art Nouveau courtyard is an opulent feast for the eyes.