This Italian ski resort rose to fame when Benito Mussolini was held prisoner there and then rescued by the SS.

This Italian stadium makes liberal use of fascist statuary to evoke classical sporting arenas.

A petite white lighthouse perched on the ancient core of Stromboli Volcano.

One of Catholicism's four major basilicas has a series of papal portraits that are said to predict the end of the world.

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

The Emperor Tiberius' palace of debauchery.

This zoological museum began as the first great curiosity cabinet.

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

The mummified relic of St. Catherine sits forever on a golden throne.

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

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

Dug as a secret royal escape route, the tunnel became a wartime bomb shelter and dumping ground for vintage cars.

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

A sulfuric hellscape in southern Italy.

Southern Italy's spinning top village.

The "Great Sewer" of ancient Rome is one of the oldest sewer systems in the world, and is still in use.

A lover's walk between hilltop towns, decorated with graffiti love notes.

A volcanic old faithful, Stromboli has been erupting continuously for the last 2000 years.

Europe’s oldest natural human mummy.

A fairytale-like medieval church perched atop a rocky cliff on Italy's "Coast of the Gods."

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

The Pope’s secret escape route.

The bomb-ravaged remains of of a colossal Neptune.

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