The abandoned ruins of a failed resort hide on this verdant, picture-perfect island.

This amazingly well-preserved villa just outside Pompeii boasts rare examples of ancient Roman paintings.

One of the most well-preserved castles in Italy also contains a rare medieval example of a port fortification.

This small, ancient Roman temple was once a church dedicated to the patron saint of penitents.

Ride a boat through this magnificent underground world, which now doubles as a theater.

This precariously perched fortress was once ruled by a crow-worshipping baron.

The giant skeleton sculpture is surprisingly well-traveled.

A star-shaped fortress town fort built in the geometric model of the Renaissance utopian city.

"Stairs of the Turks", a chalky white cliff eroded conveniently into stairs, allowing for easy pillaging.

These medieval skyscrapers dominate the skyline of this small Tuscan town.

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

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

This ancient trail climbs the mountain where a Latin League cult worshipped Jupiter, its main deity.

This Italian dam is covered in salt-hungry goats who manage to scale its almost vertical face.

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

Nestled in the hills of Tuscany are gorgeous, multicolored hot springs.

Europe’s oldest natural human mummy.

This curious building hides eclectic details like medieval gargoyles alongside naked angels and Art Nouveau mosaics.

Southern Italy's spinning top village.

This abandoned island off the Venetian coast has been a radical monastery, a political prison, and a secret Nazi base.

A young Italian couple has been locked in an embrace for over 6,000 years.

In the early Roman Empire, people deemed traitors and criminals were tossed to their deaths from this rock.

An extraordinary house museum and cabinet of curiosities in the heart of Florence.

A once-luxurious, now abandoned hotel in the Italian Alps.