This poignant art installation raises awareness of violence against women.

This giant middle finger statue sends an unambiguous message to Italy's bankers.

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

An ossuary built in 1210 to collect bones from the Ospedale Maggiore of Milan.

The secret medieval communication system will whisk your words above the noise of the crowd.

A Milanese café entirely designed by the American director Wes Anderson.

A space dedicated to contemporary art and culture, co-chaired by fashion icon Miuccia Prada.

An exclusive waiting room built for the royal family in the 1920s is hidden in Milan’s central station.

100 year tradition of fist fights, marked by marble footsteps.

This deconsecrated church has seen many uses, from a tobacco storehouse to a cinema.

Where Venice's gondolas go for a tune-up.

A sinister pyramid in the Frari contains the heart of the famous neoclassical sculptor.

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

As can be expected from a centuries old church built in a canal city, the undercroft of this house of worship is beautifully flooded.

This Venice bookstore has resigned itself to constant flooding by keeping its books in bathtubs and boats.

One of the city’s oldest watering holes was originally the home of a famous James Brown (not that one).

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

The pile of books behind the dignified writer gave the statue a most undignified nickname.

Those who own or stay at this 500-year-old, allegedly cursed house often meet terrible fates.

This palatial spiral staircase was so unusual the name "snail" was given to the noble family who built it.

Go inside to really appreciate this 500-year-old technological masterpiece.

This Roman statue is missing a limb from when the Venetians stole it from Constantinople during the Crusades.

Two stone columns flank the grand Venice square, but there were supposed to be three.

Small on the outside, big on the inside, this church is an astonishing act of visual deception.