Places tealeaves Wants to Go

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

Ancient ruins hidden underneath a modern luxury hotel.

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

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

An abandoned Roman salami factory has found new life as an art space home to 200 squatters.

The martyr's wax-enhanced skeletal remains lie preserved in a glass case in the Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome.

A forest park outside Tallinn full of architectural and artistic curiosities.

An Italian ghost town that fought obscurity, until a mysterious illness brought it to its knees.

One of seven Jewish catacombs in Rome and one of only two open to the public.

Installed in an act of one-upsmanship, the annual sundial in this church is also a symbolic victory for the Gregorian calendar.

2300-year-old Roman road connecting the empire.

Jesus' footprints and the first catacombs in the world.

A fairy tale castle in modern Rome.

At the crypt of St. Mary of Eulogies and the Dead you are left alone to ponder mortality among piles of skulls.

The final resting place of the poets Shelley and Keats.

Architectureal fantasy quarter of Rome.

Hidden beneath the famous St. Peter's Basilica is a veritable city of the dead that may hold the remains of St. Peter himself.

The city of Palestrina was built around this magnificent terraced sanctuary dedicated to the pagan goddess Fortuna.

This cafe offers a curated collection of treats and tipples made by monks and nuns.

After years of slow decline, a derelict Gothic castle is now being restored to life.

A 19th-century funicular railway shuttles visitors up this surprising sea cliff to one of the world's largest camera obscuras.

This once-derelict building is now one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world.

This network of narrow, medieval passages has the most delightful name.

This ruin in a suburban park may be the place where Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was first performed.