Places robpileckis Wants to Go

A scandalous Art Nouveau collaboration that set Paris all atwitter at the turn of the 20th century.

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

Brass cobblestones mark the places where individual Holocaust victims were taken from their homes.

A mysterious ancient elephant said to possess magic powers is now the symbol of a Sicilian city.

Southern Italy's spinning top village.

A dead saint, a deadly poison, and a mysterious holy ooze.

Skulls and skeletons are omnipresent in this church dedicated to souls trapped in purgatory.

An Italian hillside ghost town.

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

A fortified medieval basilica on the Caelian Hill preserves extraordinary frescoes and one of Rome's most beautiful hidden cloisters.

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

Its interior is adorned with some of the best examples of early Christian mosaics.

St. Francesca Romana, patron saint of drivers, resides in the church she founded.

This curious, round temple is the oldest still-standing marble building in Rome.

This ancient market is often referred to as the oldest shopping mall in the world.

The mystic whose incorrupt corpse still attracts the faithful.

Rome’s legendary peephole vista is also a former Crusader stronghold.

The best preserved Paleochristian basilica in Rome hides a number of oddities and secrets.

The spot where the fascist dictator made some of his most famous speeches including declaring war on Britain and France.

This ancient Roman prison is decorated with an upside-down cross not as blasphemy but as saintly tribute.

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

One of the most important yet well-hidden museums dedicated to the history of medicine.

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

The skull of the patron saint of lovers lies in the Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin—maybe.