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

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

Charles Dickens was not a fan of the ghastly wall dressings in this 6th century church.

The mystic whose incorrupt corpse still attracts the faithful.

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

An enigmatic modern marker left next to a historic Roman site.

Museum dedicated to literary greats of the Romantic Period is also the home in which Keats met his untimely end.

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

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

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

One of several skulls claiming to belong to the beheaded St. John the Baptist is on display at this Roman church.

This ritzy Italian market is built around a statue of an unforgiven heretic who was burned for his belief in an endless universe.

This former Roman Catholic Church still contains the embalmed hearts and organs of 22 popes.

A collection of objects supposedly singed by the hands of souls in purgatory.

Jesus' footprints and the first catacombs in the world.

The engineering wonder and pleasure dome of a much-maligned emperor still holds undiscovered secrets.

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

The final resting place of the poets Shelley and Keats.

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

The yawning maw of this pagan visage is said to bite off the hands of liars.

An alchemist's "magic door" stands in the middle of a Roman park.

Hundreds of lucky felines haunt the ruins where Caesar was murdered.

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

Home to items never before seen by the public.