Venice's island of the dead.

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.

As can be expected from a centuries-old church built in a canal city, the undercroft of this house of worship is beautifully flooded.

This Venice bookstore has resigned itself to constant flooding by keeping its books in bathtubs and boats.

The people of Padua pledged to construct this church if the city was spared from destruction during World War I.

A twisted steel beam from the wreckage of the World Trade Center is the centerpiece of this memorial for those who died on September 11, 2001.

One of the largest squares in Europe contains an entire artificial island.

The tomb of the mythological founder of Padua is not hidden in some obscure crypt, but stands right in the middle of the city square.

A medieval fresco which reminds visitors that death will come for us all.

A macabre anatomy museum tucked within an old Italian hospital.

A larger-than-life house of cards stands outside the house of a former fashion designer.

Just across from the "Last Supper" painting is the famous painter's vineyard, a gift received for creating the masterpiece.

An ossuary built in 1210 to collect bones from the Ospedale Maggiore of Milan.

A brutalist gem towering over the heart of Milan.

In the 1940s, Italian architect Mario Cavallè built a dozen of these round homes in northern Milan.

Artistic tombs, monuments, and a beautiful "Hall of Fame" lurk inside this cemetery.

This grisly effigy displays an early Christian martyr who was skinned alive and beheaded.

A massive mausoleum towers over the gravestones in a 19th-century Italian "model village."

The abandoned "Ghost Mansion" was left to decay in the mountains of Northern Italy.

Two planes stand abandoned after the closure of an aircraft-themed restaurant.

This castle was once the home of one of the most powerful women of the Renaissance.

Abandoned cemetery of the former Psychiatric Hospital of Volterra.

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