A unique form of erosion created an uncanny landscape of boulders perched atop slender columns of clay.

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

This natural gas vent certainly earns its name as the smallest volcano in Italy.

An open-air museum in a mountain valley features works designed to blend in with—and disintegrate back into—their natural surroundings.

Water and windows define this defensive Italian well.

A star-shaped fortress town fort built in the geometric model of the Renaissance utopian city.

A massive natural rock arch gives the Tuscan mountain its own window to the sky.

These delicate sand pyramids look like naturally occurring gothic spires.

A young Italian couple has been locked in an embrace for over 6,000 years.

The giant skeleton sculpture is surprisingly well-traveled.

Medieval torture techniques with a modern conscience.

This abandoned Brutalist treehouse is a hidden architectural relic.

This picturesque Umbrian city has a subterranean side that has long remained hidden.

This real life asylum of horrors is now an abandoned ruin that hides the unbreakable code to one patient's insanity.

The remains of a town so thoroughly destroyed by French forces that the citizens simply left.

This centuries-old Italian chapel hangs midway down a sheer cliffside.

Medieval town turned hippie commune, once home to the secret foreskin of Jesus Christ.

Sitting on an Italian hilltop is this surreal fortress built by the mad inventor of electrohomeopathy.

The underground sanctuary of a mysterious ancient cult.

Renaissance villa and gardens complete with a tormented colossus.

This domed temple was built in a hidden cave mouth as a refuge for sinners seeking absolution.

David Sedaris called it "The greatest shop in the world."

A collection of objects supposedly singed by the hands of souls in purgatory.

This enchanting 600-year-old tree is so magical it inspired the beloved tale of Pinocchio.