Places Ian Engweiler Wants to Go

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

In the 1940s, Italian architect Mario Cavallè built a dozen of these round homes in northern Milan.

The forbidden island of the Tuscan Archipelago may still contain buried treasure.

On the shores of Lake Garda, the ruins of a Roman villa that allegedly belonged to the poet Catullus.

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

An oasis of beauty, tranquility and botanical research in the middle of Rome.

Ancient cave tombs known as the "houses of fairies."

Believed to be the remains of the lost Temple of Minerva, this nymphaeum has been known by its misnomer to this day.

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

The former home of an Italian artist is now a shrine to his ambitious works.

An unusual house built using an iso-elastic membrane.

The mountaintop inspiration for Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose."

This building features dozens of faces along its facade, although one is a bit chilling.

During World War II, this rice mill became a Nazi concentration camp.

One of Rome's most picturesque and original bridges was also a popular choice for Grand Tour artists.

A secret hatch containing two parchments was discovered in this statue over 40 years after its installation.

Mysterious tombstones thought to be remnants of Atlantis.

This skeletal, unfinished Gothic church once housed a miraculous masterpiece by Raphael.

This statue is the only female representation of Rome's "talking statues."

This ancient Roman arch misled treasure hunters for centuries.

Legend has it that this bronze orb, which sat atop an ancient Egyptian obelisk, once held the ashes of Julius Caesar.

The bones of some 7,000 soldiers killed in the historic Battle of Solferino are stored here.

The Emperor Tiberius' palace of debauchery.

This monumental fountain has moved around the city multiple times.