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

This gallery commissioned by Cardinal Spada is known for its magnificent optical illusion.

This hidden Art Nouveau courtyard is an opulent feast for the eyes.

Plaques on its facade commemorate the Tiber's most destructive deluges.

A detailed pachyderm supports Rome's smallest Egyptian obelisk.

A wooden theatre that remains the heart of a charming Victorian-era New Jersey enclave.

A storefront museum in Asbury Park honoring the Jersey Shore’s deep history of mystery—including the Jersey Devil.

Tour the dark and beloved poet's former cobwebbed basement, which may have inspired "The Black Cat."

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

Hanging within this medieval church are the bones of a beast allegedly slain by a fourth-century saint.

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

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

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

The tomb of the mythological founder of Padua is not hidden in some obscure crypt, but stands right in the middle of the city square.

In medieval times this small stone seat was used as a bizarre way to punish insolvent debtors.

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

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

Something's missing between the arcades of the Palazzo della Ragione in "the city of the three withouts."

The incorrupt tongue of the patron saint of lost things is venerated in this basilica.

The oldest botanical garden in the world that technically isn't the oldest.

One of the largest squares in Europe contains an entire artificial island.

This old medieval prison tower has been a site of astronomical research for more than 250 years.

Atop the former site of a historic bakery sit two stone tributes to Verona's contribution to traditional Italian baking.

A gorgeous example of 13th-century Gothic architecture.