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

The famous sculptor left his mark on this Italian wall in an internationally protected example of street art.

Over 50 exquisite hand-painted Renaissance maps decorate a Medici storage room.

Pilgrimage site for star-crossed lovers.

Skulls from the plague of 1656 and World War II bombings are united by a cult dedicated to caring for the ancient dead.

The once forbidden "secret cabinet" of erotic art from excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

A large grotto built in the 16th century amidst Florence's famous Boboli gardens.

The oldest operating pharmacy in the world features 800-year-old recipes.

The largest and most famous wax anatomical collection anywhere in the world.

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

The glowing blue Nymphaeum of Emperor Tiberius.

Geothermal waterfalls in Tuscany.

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

The middle finger of modernity.

Stalactites and stalagmites in a beautifully lit cave.

The mystic whose incorrupt corpse still attracts the faithful.

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

Roman-era ships unearthed...

This historic recreationist school churns out warriors that may very well have had a fighting chance in Rome's pits of the day.

The "Greatest Sewer" of ancient Rome is one of the oldest sewer systems in the world, and is still in use.

This delightful little museum is dedicated to only one thing: pasta.

If you want to talk to the Pope you will have to stare down this surreal vision of Jesus rising from a nuclear hell.

This Roman arch marks the location of an ancient gate at one of the Seven Hills of Rome.

More sculpture than building, this architecturally significant temple was built on the spot of Saint Peter's crucifixion.