Places onlyfrancis Wants to Go

Renaissance villa and gardens complete with a tormented colossus.

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.

The middle finger of modernity.

A 16th-century horror show built in a lovely Italian garden.

An Italian crevasse filled with abandoned buildings gives visitors a look at the world without humans.

For more than a century, this hole-in-the-wall near Termini Station has been serving what some say is the greatest porchetta sandwich.

Since 1999, this gelateria founded by a string instrument maker has been turning out some of Rome’s best scoops.

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

This statue is the only female representation of Rome's "talking statues."

One of Rome's most picturesque and original bridges was also a popular choice for Grand Tour artists.

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

This unassuming bridge is most likely one of Michelangelo's unfinished masterworks.

Known for centuries as the famous Roman emperor's burial place, this monument is actually something else.

An 18th century fountain and two columns are all that remains of Rome's forgotten river harbor.

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

Italian horror legend Dario Argento’s own shop hides a sinister museum-dungeon in the basement.

Romans decided this 16th-century "talking statue" was so ugly, they named it after a primate.

This small, ancient Roman temple was once a church dedicated to the patron saint of penitents.

The first Russian Orthodox church in the Catholic city of Rome in almost a thousand years.

Rome's ancient Etruscan rival, now a park full of ruins.

These hut foundations are believed to be the residence of Romulus, founder of Rome.

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

The only remaining arch of the oldest stone bridge in Rome stands in the middle of the Tiber.