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

This strange bovine gargoyle is said to have been put in as a passive aggressive form of revenge.

A medieval weapon rumored to have been used by the brilliant poet himself.

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

The mummified relic of St. Antoninus.

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

The graveyard is filled with beautiful funerary art and boasts breathtaking views of Florence.

An incredible menagerie of more than 3 million taxidermied animals at the oldest science museum in Europe.

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

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

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

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

Over 50 exquisite hand-painted Renaissance maps decorate a Medici storage room.

The largest and most famous wax anatomical collection anywhere in the world.

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

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 middle finger of modernity.

An island on the Venetian Lagoon hosts this stone chair that has nothing to do with the King of the Huns.

This sturdy, circular stronghold served as one of the forts that protected the Venetian Lagoon.

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

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

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

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

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