A monument to the real explorer and bear who inspired characters in Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials.'

A large grotto built in the 16th century amidst Florence's famous Boboli gardens.

The first botanical garden, a feather in the cap of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

A slightly creepy gallery of plaster cast models in the same museum as Michelangelo's David.

A plaque on the base of this statue holds a bewitching design.

The doodles of a genius line the walls of a secret room under the Medici Chapel, where they were hidden for nearly 500 years.

The only visible reminders of an elaborate engineering project that kept the tower from reaching the tipping point.

Next to the Leaning Tower of Pisa is a cemetery home to ancient sarcophagi and disturbing murals.

The middle finger of modernity.

Legend says this mysterious stone head belongs to a woman who was petrified by an alchemist.

The oldest operating pharmacy in the world features 800-year-old recipes.

Renaissance hospital featuring a rotating door into which unwanted babies were dropped.

The famous sculptor left his mark on this Italian wall in an internationally protected example of street art.

This bronze boar's snout has been rubbed to a golden sheen by visitors seeking good fortune.

Drink wine handed out through a window as part of an age-old tradition.

This private skyway is filled with art and was expanded explicitly so that Hitler could appreciate a river.

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

A small window on Via Piella offers a lovely and rare peek at Bologna's lost canals.

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

Legend has it this fountain built to symbolize the Pope’s power hides a strange secret concerning Neptune's manliness.

This building features dozens of faces along its facade, although one is a bit chilling.

An enigmatic sculpture depicts a ruined home with debris stretching for over half a mile along the river.

One of England's oldest stone churches and the birthplace of the "father of English history."

This steel sculpture made from a recycled crane towers above a former shipyard.