A beloved local artist has been honored with this statue of a man emerging from a toilet.

The remains of an ancient Roman city are hidden underneath Bologna's beautiful public library.

Legend has it this fountain built to symbolize the Pope’s power hides a strange secret concerning Neptune's manliness.

This zoological museum began as the first great curiosity cabinet.

Over 100 towers were built in Bologna during the Middle Ages, but only 22 survive.

An extraordinary collection of 18th century anatomical waxworks.

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

A new sculpture calls attention to climate change in the centuries-old city it threatens.

This sturdy, circular stronghold served as one of the forts that protected the Venetian Lagoon.

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

Stare out over the lagoon and beyond from this 10th-century campanile on the island where the city of Venice began.

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

In the past, Renaissance sex workers were encouraged to entice customers on this bridge.

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

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

The small peaceful island off the Venice tourist circuit is where the city began more than 1,500 years ago.

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

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

Venice's island of the dead.

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

Armenian monks at an island monastery in the Venetian Lagoon make a rare rose petal jam.

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.

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