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

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

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

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

Hanging within this medieval church are the bones of a beast allegedly slain by a fourth-century saint.

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

Armenian monks at an island monastery in the Venetian Lagoon make a rare rose petal jam.

A sinister pyramid in the Frari contains the heart of the famous neoclassical sculptor.

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

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

As can be expected from a centuries old church built in a canal city, the undercroft of this house of worship is beautifully flooded.

This Venice bookstore has resigned itself to constant flooding by keeping its books in bathtubs and boats.

Venice's "Island of the Mad."

A twisted steel beam from the wreckage of the World Trade Center is the centerpiece of this memorial for those who died on September 11, 2001.

One of the largest squares in Europe contains an entire artificial island.

Something's missing between the arcades of the Palazzo della Ragione in "the city of the three withouts."

The people of Padua pledged to construct this church if the city was spared from destruction during World War I.

The tomb of the mythological founder of Padua is not hidden in some obscure crypt, but stands right in the middle of the city square.

In medieval times this small stone seat was used as a bizarre way to punish insolvent debtors.

This old medieval prison tower has been a site of astronomical research for more than 250 years.

The incorrupt tongue of the patron saint of lost things is venerated in this basilica.

The world's oldest surviving anatomical theater, where "the dead are pleased to help the living."

One of the world's oldest working clocks is curiously missing the Zodiac sign of Libra.

Built to repay the sins of the father, this church is home to one of the most valuable works of Western art.