The marshy karst plain has reclaimed this beautiful 17th-century church.

A beautiful chapel on the hills of the Oltrepò Pavese claims to house the tomb of King Edward II of England.

A striped 12th-century basilica sits in the countryside of Sardinia.

A mushroom-shaped outcropping that has come to be the symbol for an entire town.

A lonesome Moai stands in a small Italian town some 9,000 miles away from its Easter Island brethren.

Built to be the ideal penitentiary, this abandoned panopticon saw several revolts and even a prisoners' coup.

This Italian ski resort rose to fame when Benito Mussolini was held prisoner there and then rescued by the SS.

Host to the annual Festival of the Snakes.

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

A local student's chance encounter with Keith Haring led to the creation of one of Europe's largest murals.

This church, better known for its weeping portrait of the Virgin Mary, also houses the world's oldest existing piece of taxidermy.

When a massive landslide hit one of the world's tallest dams it created a tragic environmental disaster.

An ancient rogue artist community hidden next to one of the world's most glitzy and glamorous cities.

The world's largest "Christmas tree" is illuminated by hundreds of lights stretching 2,000 feet up the slope of Mount Ingino.

A narrow opening between the mountains of the Amalfi Coast creates a scenic hidden beach.

A fortified medieval basilica on the Caelian Hill preserves extraordinary frescoes and one of Rome's most beautiful hidden cloisters.

An incredible mosaic-lined monument said to have held the remains of an ancient Roman empress.

The old church, buried by the 1784 Mount Vesuvius eruption, is a remarkably well-preserved place where people now pray for the souls of the dead.

An unsettling painting of three faceless sisters that is surrounded by history and legend.

This cliff-face port is considered a masterpiece of mining engineering.

Romans decided this 16th-century "talking statue" was so ugly, they named it after a primate.

These pools have been abandoned for over 20 years.

This historic floating crane became an unlikely symbol of the port of Trieste.

A fascist-era rural village abandoned since the early 1980s.