This palatial spiral staircase was so unusual the name "snail" was given to the noble family who built it.

Go inside to really appreciate this 500-year-old technological masterpiece.

A small island less than half a mile from Venice is a forbidden island with a dark and twisted past.

More than 450 years ago, an Italian nun became the first woman to paint the iconic subject.

Some say this medieval church is where the poet Dante married his wife and also met the love of his life.

Memorials at a Florence railway station remember the citizens who were deported from Italy and sent to extermination camps.

Drink wine handed out through a window as part of an age-old tradition.

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

The graveyard is filled with beautiful funerary art and boasts breathtaking views of Florence.

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

A medieval weapon rumored to have been used by the brilliant poet himself.

The mummified relic of St. Antoninus.

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

Secret refuge and museum of the Duke of Florence.

Over 50 exquisite hand-painted Renaissance maps decorate a Medici storage room.

This bronze boar's snout has been rubbed to a golden sheen by visitors seeking good fortune.

A large grotto built in the 16th century amidst Florence's famous Boboli gardens.

The oldest operating pharmacy in the world features 800-year-old recipes.

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

A forgotten "city of water" underneath the famous Trevi district.

A colossal aqueduct from the second century B.C., deeply hidden in a gorge on the outskirts of Rome.

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

This basilica is dedicated to two saints, one of which is known more for his famous quote.

A massive marble foot is tucked away in a small alley near the Pantheon.