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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A dismembered holy head stares out from her beautiful reliquary at the St. Dominic Basilica.

This sword isn't waiting for a king to pull it out. It was placed there by a saint.

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

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

One of Catholicism's four major basilicas has a series of papal portraits that are said to predict the end of the world.

2300-year-old Roman road connecting the empire.

After starting as a whimsical tourist attraction that eventually found its way to ruin, these renovated canals offer a lush and exotic locale on the Pacific Coast.

Hollywood's most famous landmark, the "temporary" sign that has stood for decades longer than intended.

This bridge was the birthplace of a unit of measurement based on a fraternity joke.

The statue of John Harvard isn't actually John Harvard—or even, technically, the founder of the school.

This parking garage was the site of what was - at the time - the largest cash robbery in history.

Stolen goods adorn the organ at Old North Church.

An interesting decoration on this historic site, this weathervane comes with as many legends as it does questions.

This impressive Boston holy house is the American mecca for Christian scientists.

Tragedy on Little Brewster Island memorialized.

The oldest working bell set in North America, the bells at Old North Church sat silent for their first four years in Massachusetts.

One of the indelible moments of the American Revolution took place at this location.