A hidden bas-relief of a hare on a church main portal that brings good luck to the ones who find it.

This decoration above a door, an unofficial family crest, is said to come alive during the night to try to get free of the stone.

A medieval tower with a suspended iron cage used as an open-air jail for criminals who were exposed as a warning.

An island on the Venetian Lagoon hosts this stone chair that has nothing to do with the King of the Huns.

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

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

Stare out over the lagoon and beyond from this 10th-century campanile on the island where the city of Venice began.

The small peaceful island off the Venice tourist circuit is where the city began more than 1,500 years ago.

This community on a small Venetian island has taken to painting their houses in bright neon hues.

Hanging within this medieval church are the bones of a beast allegedly slain by a fourth-century saint.

Venice's island of the dead.

The seat of the Mantua bishop holds many secrets within its walls.

It took more than 300 years to build this church, which is home to two sacred vessels believed to hold the blood of Christ.

This narrow fjord-like bay is the largest ria in the Mediterranean Sea.

According to legend, this small island was home to one of the sirens met by Ulysses in the Odyssey.

A snow-white church overlooking the wonderful Tyrrhenian Sea.

The smaller of the three towers of San Marino is a former prison inaccessible from the ground level.

A 15th-century monumental Latin inscription on this house celebrates Lorenzo Manilio's love for Rome.

A large statue of Pope Gregory XIII in Bologna was disguised as Saint Petronius to avoid destruction.

The intricate geometry inside this Baroque-style dome was designed to create "terror of the human soul."

This building has a giant piercing through one of its corners.

When this funny little building went up in the 19th century, most people thought it would simply fall over.

Now an entertainment complex, the Lingotto building was once an avant-garde auto factory with a test track on the roof.

Stuck in the arcade of Casa Isolani are three arrows of mysterious origins.