ernestct's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Bologna, Italy

Bologna Centrale Station Clock

Time has been frozen at this station since the bombing in 1980—or so it was believed.
Bologna, Italy

Towers of Bologna

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

The Demon of Palazzo Salina

This building features dozens of faces along its facade, although one is a bit chilling.
Bologna, Italy

Fountain of Neptune

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

Scrovegni Chapel

Built to repay the sins of the father, this church is home to one of the most valuable works of Western art.
Padua, Italy

Padua Astronomical Clock

One of the world's oldest working clocks is curiously missing the Zodiac sign of Libra.
Venice, Italy

Torcello

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

Isola di San Michele

Venice's island of the dead.
Venice, Italy

Piraeus Lion

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

Palazzo Dario

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

Peggy Guggenheim's Grave

The only museum with its curator—and her pets—buried inside.
Venice, Italy

Libreria Acqua Alta

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

Reliquaries of St Mark's Basilica Treasury

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

Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs

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

Scuola Grande di San Marco

The marble facade hides a little-known medical museum with early surgical instruments and rare copies of canonical texts.
Venice, Italy

St. Mark's Clock Tower (Torre dell'Orologio)

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

Ponte dei Pugni (Bridge of Fists)

100 year tradition of fist fights, marked by marble footsteps.
Venice, Italy

Monument to Niccolò Tommaseo

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

Church of Santa Margherita

This deconsecrated church has seen many uses, from a tobacco storehouse to a cinema.
Venice, Italy

Scala Contarini del Bovolo

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

Church of San Giacomo di Rialto

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

Tomb of Antonio Canova

A sinister pyramid in the Frari contains the heart of the famous neoclassical sculptor.
Venice, Italy

Ponte delle Tette

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

Starrett House

The building features one of the last remaining free-floating spiral grand staircases in the U.S.