Bell tower juts out from a village buried under a lake.

The remains of a town so thoroughly destroyed by French forces that the citizens simply left.

Five candy-colored villages on the Italian Riviera.

This quaint Italian town keeps losing ground as the sides of its plateau slowly erode.

A fairy tale castle in modern Rome.

Architectural monsters are devouring this palace's every door and window.

The final resting place of the poets Shelley and Keats.

Hidden beneath the famous St. Peter's Basilica is a veritable city of the dead that may hold the remains of St. Peter himself.

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

2300-year-old Roman road connecting the empire.

Ruins of a 10th century church tucked away deep in a botanical garden.

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

Abandoned medieval hill town.

According to the local folklore, the myriad colors of this lake are the result of a lovelorn wizard's blunder.

The glowing blue Nymphaeum of Emperor Tiberius.

This 16th-century monastery has been turned into a surrealist architecture compound.

Rome's semi-secret peephole vista is also a former Crusader stronghold.

Hidden in an Italian forest is a completely homemade amusement park that has taken a lifetime to create.

The underground sanctuary of a mysterious ancient cult.

A master of trompe-l'oeil creates a stunning, tourist-fooling dome out of a flat ceiling.

An alchemist's "magic door" stands in the middle of a Roman park.

The crypts of Capuchin friars decorated with the bones of over 4,000 friars, including an entire "crypt of pelvises."

A 16th-century horror show built in a lovely Italian garden.