A wood-and-steel sculpture garden featuring an artful interplay of nature and machinery.

Italy's curious field of mud volcanoes is named for being both gross AND salty.

Artist Diego Morlin's war between the natural and human worlds is a wanderer's delight.

A tree that defies gravity grows in an ancient ruin.

A climbing route in the mountains of Italy’s Dolomites, built for soldiers during World War I.

A dilapidated psychiatric facility on the outskirts of Milan where electroconvulsive therapy was developed and Napoleon once lived.

A once-luxurious, now abandoned hotel in the Italian Alps.

The only substantial part of Nazi Germany's formidable defensive line through Northern Italy that survives today, largely intact.

The Roman Emperor's lost summer home and grotto full of enormous sculptures sit along the Italian seashore.

Naturally preserved bodies are eerily staged throughout the crypt in varying poses.

Romans built the world's tallest artificial waterfall in 271 BC.

This overgrown mountain village has been abandoned for nearly a century.

This Neapolitan exhibition hall grants weird and wonderful insight into the intricacies of human biology.

Nestled in the heart of Milan is a real wunderkammer of morbid curiosities.

This ancient altar emerges from the thick forests to reveal the mysteries of Etruscan sacrificial rituals.

A collection of wonderfully preserved 19th-century creatures, as well as hunting trophies seized during a police raid.

This breathtaking monastery was established by Saint Benedict himself 1,500 years ago.

The abandoned ruins of a failed resort hide on this verdant, picture-perfect island.

A haunting collection of sunken wooden barges litters this Italian river bend.

One of the highest mountain passes in Europe has been ranked among the best driving roads in the world.

A wunderkammer of curious objects and intriguing art nestled within a hub of ancient Roman sites.

On the shores of Lake Garda, the ruins of a Roman villa that allegedly belonged to the poet Catullus.

This mysterious ancient arch is hidden in the forest of Simbruini Mountains Regional Park.

A magnificent waterfall is also home to the remains of a Roman hydraulic engineering system.