This deconsecrated church has seen many uses, from a tobacco storehouse to a cinema.

The pile of books behind the dignified writer gave the statue a most undignified nickname.

According to tradition this is the oldest church in Venice, but its actual age is a mystery.

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

In the past, Renaissance sex workers were encouraged to entice customers on this bridge.

This Roman statue is missing a limb from when the Venetians stole it from Constantinople during the Crusades.

The only museum with its curator—and her pets—buried inside.

The oldest of Venice's plague quarantine stations, designed to keep the medieval city safe from disease.

Originally a leper colony, the island is now an Armenian monastery that's home to an incredible manuscript library and eclectic museum.

Where Venice's gondolas go for a tune-up.

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

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

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

This abandoned island off the Venetian coast has been a radical monastery, a political prison, and a secret Nazi base.

Thousand-year-old Viking runes adorn an ancient Greek lion at the entrance to the Venetian Arsenal.

Those who own or stay at this 500-year-old, allegedly cursed house often meet terrible fates.

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

100 year tradition of fist fights, marked by marble footsteps.

A sinister pyramid in the Frari contains the heart of the famous neoclassical sculptor.

The plague quarantine island home to the alleged "Vampire of Venice."

This palatial spiral staircase was so unusual the name "snail" was given to the noble family who built it.

Venice's "Island of the Mad."

As can be expected from a centuries old church built in a canal city, the undercroft of this house of worship is beautifully flooded.

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