Places lefrea Wants to Go

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

Haunting graffiti left by prisoners of the Spanish Inquisition.

Behind medieval walls in a corner of bustling Palermo is a breathtaking former mosque once inhabited by a wolf-taming hermit.

The city of Palestrina was built around this magnificent terraced sanctuary dedicated to the pagan goddess Fortuna.

A unique form of erosion created an uncanny landscape of boulders perched atop slender columns of clay.

One of the world's oldest working clocks is curiously missing the Zodiac sign of Libra.

A spiritual sanctuary in a natural cave.

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

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

A medieval fountain lined with 99 unique stone faces whose origins and meaning remain unknown.

An Italian vineyard invites religious pilgrims to stop by 24/7 to get their drink on, for free.

Stumbling upon this whimsical wooded garden is like stepping into an enchanted forest full of philosophical musings.

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

The odd depiction of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus is rooted in the Catholic Church's eradication of Catharism.

A line of abandoned, alien-like fortresses dot the mountains of North Italy.

An open-air museum in a mountain valley features works designed to blend in with—and disintegrate back into—their natural surroundings.

This natural gas vent certainly earns its name as the smallest volcano in Italy.

A factory director designed what was the world's longest suspension footbridge in 1923 so his employees could get to work safely.

Beautiful views and Roman-style statues on the Italian coast.

One man's quest to fix his toilet unearthed over 5,000 artifacts spanning more than 2,000 years of history.

Geometry and mystery come together in an epic show of octagonal masonry.

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

A domed disco abandoned since the '70s now attracts artists and explorers under its unique roof.

People have been living in the cave houses on this Italian hillside since the Neolithic era.