Places piccolo8va Wants to Go

The Cathedral of St. Ambrose has been hiding a special parishioner within its walls.

The marble facade hides a little-known medical museum with early surgical instruments and rare copies of canonical texts.

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

A spiritual sanctuary in a natural cave.

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

An extensive collection of reliquaries containing the bones of saints housed in the largest Catholic church in Venice.

The oldest botanical garden in the world that technically isn't the oldest.

This beautiful park on the outskirts of Rome protects the ruins of two colossal ancient aqueducts.

Over 100 towers were built in Bologna during the Middle Ages, but only 22 survive.

Macabre symbols of death and mummies on display set the tone of this Italian purgatory church.

The incorrupt tongue of the patron saint of lost things is venerated in this basilica.

Cave shrine on Monte Pellegrino.

On the coast of Sardinia, a once-great mining village is finding new life as a coastal resort town.

A collection of grotesques lines the walls of this Italian villa.

A treasure trove of Renaissance-era funerary art in a Roman church built on top of Nero's grave.

The naturally mummified body of a peasant girl saint.

The highest waterfall in Italy is only "turned on" five times a year.

In the world's oldest university is a stunning 17th century anatomical theater carved from spruce.

Stumbling upon this whimsical wooded garden is like stepping into an enchanted forest full of philosophical musings.

The mystic whose incorrupt corpse still attracts the faithful.

The top of society once luxuriated in this world-class hotel, which continues to impress, even in ruin.

Built to repay the sins of the father, this church is home to one of the most valuable works of Western art.

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

This zoological museum began as the first great curiosity cabinet.