A sudden, striking cluster of hills south of Padua has been attracting visitors for centuries.

A small window on Via Piella offers a lovely and rare peek at Bologna's lost canals.

The only museum with its curator—and her pets—buried inside.

The small peaceful island off the Venice tourist circuit is where the city began more than 1,500 years ago.

A diverse collection of wax, bone, papier-maché and mummified relics.

A cave in southern Italy adorned with thousand-year-old Biblical frescoes existed in obscurity until fairly recently.

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

Largest necropolis in the Mediterranean.

A 1,000-year-old church holds the bones of the Christian martyrs who died hiding inside it.

This zoological museum began as the first great curiosity cabinet.

The incorrupt tongue of the patron saint of lost things is venerated in this basilica.

Fortified medieval tower house with lovely roof garden.

The Pope’s secret escape route.

These delicate sand pyramids look like naturally occurring gothic spires.

Italian poet Dante Alighieri is entombed in this small mausoleum in Ravenna, and his hometown of Florence has never been too happy about it.

Southern Italy's spinning top village.

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

These gutted monastery ruins still stand proudly in the middle of the Italian countryside.

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

This hill made entirely of ancient Roman jars was simply a garbage dump to the people of the time.

Europe’s oldest natural human mummy.

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

A sulfuric hellscape in southern Italy.

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