The sunlight passing through the opening of this huge cave system creates a magical effect.

The forbidden island of the Tuscan Archipelago may still contain buried treasure.

The steel cable lets adventurers zoom between two mountain towns at speeds of up to 75 miles per hour.

A unique Tuscan hideaway acts as an art mecca as well as a hotel.

On the coast of Sardinia, a once-great mining village is finding new life as a coastal resort town.

The train platform where Jews were sent to concentration camps is now preserved as a Holocaust memorial.

142 ceramic steps become a mosaic once a year.

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

A medieval fountain lined with 99 unique stone faces whose origins and meaning remain unknown.

A lavish 16th-century mansion filled with spectacular staircases, fantastic frescoes, and gorgeous gardens.

Two stone columns flank the grand Venice square, but there were supposed to be three.

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

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

The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead still cares for the skulls at this mini-Fontanelle.

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

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

Ham is serious business at the Prosciutto Museum-Serious, delicious business.

These gutted monastery ruins still stand proudly in the middle of the Italian countryside.

A volcanic old faithful, Stromboli has been erupting continuously for the last 2000 years.

Eighteen mummies have stood guard behind the altar of this tiny church since 1833.

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

Art and armour fill every inch of this rich kid's Italian villa.

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

These delicate sand pyramids look like naturally occurring gothic spires.