Legend has it this fountain built to symbolize the Pope’s power hides a strange secret concerning Neptune's manliness.

A diverse collection of wax, bone, papier-maché and mummified relics.

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

In the world's oldest university is a stunning 17th century anatomical theater carved from spruce.

Italian cave with exceptional acoustics and an unsavory history.

Cave shrine on Monte Pellegrino.

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

Haunting graffiti left by prisoners of the Spanish Inquisition.

Thousands of well-dressed mummies below a monastery.

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

An incredible menagerie of more than 3 million taxidermied animals at the oldest science museum in Europe.

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

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 middle finger of modernity.

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

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

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

St. Francesca Romana, patron saint of drivers, resides in the church she founded.

Gods clash with machines in a power plant regenerated as a museum.

An enigmatic modern marker left next to a historic Roman site.

The martyr's wax-enhanced skeletal remains lie preserved in a glass case in the Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome.

Installed in an act of one-upsmanship, the annual sundial in this church is also a symbolic victory for the Gregorian calendar.

One of several skulls claiming to belong to the beheaded St. John the Baptist is on display at this Roman church.

This ritzy Italian market is built around a statue of an unforgiven heretic who was burned for his belief in an endless universe.