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

This mosaic-lined medieval church was built by the world's first admiral and still holds mass in ancient Greek.

Before there were doorbells this bronze ear was installed for visitors to announce their arrival.

A stunning bridge that appears as if it's lunging to the shore, and has a legend of a devilish architect.

A dismembered holy head stares out from her beautiful reliquary at the St. Dominic Basilica.

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

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

Ancient snack bar of the Roman Empire re-opened.

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

Pilgrimage site for star-crossed lovers.

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

Five candy-colored villages on the Italian Riviera.

The once forbidden "secret cabinet" of erotic art from excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

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

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

The glowing blue Nymphaeum of Emperor Tiberius.

Thousands of well-dressed mummies below a monastery.

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

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

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

The crypts of Capuchin friars decorated with the bones of over 4,000 friars, including an entire "crypt of pelvises."

In Florence's great Duomo, a 26 foot fresco honors a mercenary famous for attacking Florence.

A copy of the famous statue can be found in this Florence piazza, along with one of the most breathtaking views of the city below.

A slightly creepy gallery of plaster cast models in the same museum as Michelangelo's David.