A limestone grotto where daylight filters in from below and turns the water a beautiful turquoise. Also home to a small underwater nativity scene.

The Emperor Tiberius' palace of debauchery.

A narrow opening between the mountains of the Amalfi Coast creates a scenic hidden beach.

For centuries, this large Roman villa remained hidden thanks to the eruption that buried nearby Pompeii and Herculaneum.

These medieval skyscrapers dominate the skyline of this small Tuscan town.

First founded in 1472, this is the oldest bank in the world. Its history may explain why we call financial institutions "banks."

Contains some of the world's more disturbing wax anatomical models.

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

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

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

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

The Roman Emperor's lost summer home and grotto full of enormous sculptures sit along the Italian seashore.

The “Sistine Chapel” of the Middle Ages merges 11th-century science and religion in wondrous hues.

This hermitage celebrates the legend of Emperor Constantine's healing from leprosy.

An abandoned 17th-century baroque hunting lodge with a wonderfully strange architectural plan.

A secret hatch containing two parchments was discovered in this statue over 40 years after its installation.

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

2300-year-old Roman road connecting the empire.

Historic fortifications form the boundary of Vatican City, but it’s not entirely surrounded by walls.

A sculpture serving as an homage to Pope John Paul II.

Ancient ruins hidden underneath a modern luxury hotel.

Rome's first modern graffito is all that is left of a peaceful protest from the 1970s.

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

A master of trompe-l'oeil creates a stunning, tourist-fooling dome out of a flat ceiling.