Behind medieval walls in a corner of bustling Palermo is a breathtaking former mosque once inhabited by a wolf-taming hermit.

This triumphal 16th-century arched gateway leads to the oldest street in Palermo.

Why a column on the entrance is inscribed with a verse from the Quran is one of Sicily's many mysteries.

An abandoned shopping gallery built during Fascist Italy tucked in the center of Palermo.

A study of Fascist era Art Deco design in Italy.

The glowing blue Nymphaeum of Emperor Tiberius.

This clifftop arch is a natural stunner.

The Emperor Tiberius' palace of debauchery.

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

According to tradition this is the oldest church in Venice, but its actual age is a mystery.

In the past, Renaissance sex workers were encouraged to entice customers on this bridge.

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

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

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

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

This stately palace, first built in the 16th century, was converted into a prison in 1830.

A mushroom-shaped outcropping that has come to be the symbol for an entire town.

Deceased nuns were placed on stone chairs to decompose, while the surviving nuns prayed near the lifeless bodies.

For decades, vendors have sold clothes once worn by American soldiers who stormed Italy in the 1940s.

Pompeii's less famous neighbor is still revealing her secrets.

Before the more famous Royal Palace of Caserta, the king of Naples first commissioned this overlooked residence.

An unusual "skull with ears" sits in the crypt of this small church tucked away at the end of a narrow alley.

San Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples, greets pedestrians between these narrow city streets.

The relics of dozens of martyrs are stored in a single chapel.