Places Ian Engweiler Wants to Go

Over 100 towers were built in Bologna during the Middle Ages, but only 22 survive.

Gods clash with machines in a power plant regenerated as a museum.

Roman-era ships unearthed...

A fake medieval village in the middle of Turin.

The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead still cares for the skulls at this mini-Fontanelle.

Rome's ancient Etruscan rival, now a park full of ruins.

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

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

The remains of a town so thoroughly destroyed by French forces that the citizens simply left.

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

An extraordinary house museum and cabinet of curiosities in the heart of Florence.

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

Virgil's many-mouthed gateway to the underworld.

The studio built by fascists in the hopes of "reviving the film industry" with the occasional propaganda film opportunity thrown in.

This Italian foot path winds through the mountains via 52 individual tunnels.

Ancient snack bar of the Roman Empire re-opened.

This subterranean shrine beneath a bike rental store celebrates the iconic Italian scooter.

Renaissance hospital featuring a rotating door into which unwanted babies were dropped.

The ruins of the largest gladiatorial school in Rome are largely hidden under modern streets.

Ancient ruins hidden underneath a modern luxury hotel.

The skulls and bones of thousands of soldiers line the walls of this small Italian chapel.

This gallery commissioned by Cardinal Spada is known for its magnificent optical illusion.

The mummified relic of St. Antoninus.

A burial vault located under Tiber Island in the middle of the Italian capital.