A whale rib was used to advertise the store by the arch that offered exotic goods from far away.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Go inside to really appreciate this 500-year-old technological masterpiece.

Venice's "Island of the Mad."

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

A small island less than half a mile from Venice is a forbidden island with a dark and twisted past.

The walls and streets of the ancient city are peppered with penises.

Ancient snack bar of the Roman Empire re-opened.

Erotic art covers the walls of the largest ancient pleasure palace.

The last moments of the ill-fated Pompeiians, frozen forever in plaster.

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

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

A deep mark on the remains of a Roman temple, believed to be left by a legendary warrior.

This park on the outskirts of Rome boasts two ancient Roman aqueducts and a medieval tower.

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

Brass cobblestones mark the places where individual Holocaust victims were taken from their homes.