Legend says this mysterious stone head belongs to a woman who was petrified by an alchemist.

This strange bovine gargoyle is said to have been put in as a passive aggressive form of revenge.

The middle finger of modernity.

Once known for its horse-powered knife sharpening, this 200-year-old shop offers an array of blades and hard-to-find culinary tools.

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

An extraordinary collection of 18th century anatomical waxworks.

This former farm In northern Iceland is now a museum, where visitors can tour beautifully-preserved turf houses.

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

A medieval Italian village is fighting depopulation with this vibrant annual street art festival.

Skulls and skeletons are omnipresent in this church dedicated to souls trapped in purgatory.

An eccentric artist's abode in this small Italian town has been transformed into a surreal temple of mosaic madness.

The burial place of an obscure North African saint was turned into a macabre body preservation factory for the 17th-century Neapolitan elite.

The world's oldest surviving anatomical theater, where "the dead are pleased to help the living."

The odd depiction of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus is rooted in the Catholic Church's eradication of Catharism.

The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead still cares for the skulls at this mini-Fontanelle.

A stunning cemetery famous for its extraordinarily delicate & lifelike mourning sculptures.

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

The giant skeleton sculpture is surprisingly well-traveled.

A domed disco abandoned since the '70s now attracts artists and explorers under its unique roof.

Venice's island of the dead.

Italian cave with exceptional acoustics and an unsavory history.

The skulls and bones of thousands of soldiers line the walls of this small Italian chapel.

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

In Rome’s Jewish ghetto, a 200-year-old bakery still makes the neighborhood’s historic sweets.