A trail of iron footwear stands as a monument to the thousands executed along this riverbank during WWII.

A giant bug impaled on a 75-foot-tall needle.

Rare wooden escalators lead deep down into an otherwise staggeringly monotonous tiled tunnel.

This ghost town in Belgium will lose its street art when it ceases to exist.

A mysterious ancient elephant said to possess magic powers is now the symbol of a Sicilian city.

This amazingly preserved Doric temple was abandoned before it was ever completed.

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

This 6th-century church has the largest and best-preserved collection of Byzantine mosaics outside Constantinople.

A copy of the famous statue can be found in this Florence piazza, along with one of the most breathtaking views of the city below.

This bustling Italian plaza is built on the ruins of an ancient Roman amphitheater.

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.

A small window on Via Piella offers a lovely and rare peek at Bologna's lost canals.

Fortified medieval tower house with lovely roof garden.

Italian poet Dante Alighieri is entombed in this small mausoleum in Ravenna, and his hometown of Florence has never been too happy about it.

These gutted monastery ruins still stand proudly in the middle of the Italian countryside.

Filled with goldfish swimming in a shallow pool of sea water, this ancient crypt is more wishing well than burial site.

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

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

Renaissance villa and gardens complete with a tormented colossus.

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

Thousands of well-dressed mummies below a monastery.

This former Nazi castle was built as a school to train what would have been the future of the Third Reich.

The last bastion of Roman presence north of the Alps looms over a German town.