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

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

An extensive collection of reliquaries containing the bones of saints housed in the largest Catholic church in Venice.

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

This Roman statue is missing a limb from when the Venetians stole it from Constantinople during the Crusades.

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

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

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

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

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

Venice's "Island of the Mad."

The oldest of Venice's plague quarantine stations, designed to keep the medieval city safe from disease.

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

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 mummified relic of St. Antoninus.

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.

Secret refuge and museum of the Duke of Florence.

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

In Florence's great Duomo, a 26 foot fresco honors a mercenary famous for attacking Florence.

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

More than 450 years ago, an Italian nun became the first woman to paint the iconic subject.

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

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