The oldest of Venice's plague quarantine stations, designed to keep the medieval city safe from disease.

This military mausoleum captures the solemn grandeur that most memorials only aspire to.

An open-air museum in a mountain valley features works designed to blend in with—and disintegrate back into—their natural surroundings.

A line of abandoned, alien-like fortresses dot the mountains of North Italy.

A gorgeous medieval library where the books are kept in chains.

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

A madman's personal garden filled with 1,000 sculpted heads.

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

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

Water and windows define this defensive Italian well.

One of the most important yet well-hidden museums dedicated to the history of medicine.

Charles Dickens was not a fan of the ghastly wall dressings in this 6th century church.

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

The mummified relic of St. Catherine sits forever on a golden throne.

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

An amazing collection of wax anatomical models and terratological models.

St. Francesca Romana, patron saint of drivers, resides in the church she founded.

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

This magical-looking island is notorious for the misfortunes suffered by its owners.

A stunning bridge that appears as if it's lunging to the shore, and has a legend of a devilish architect.

A sulfuric hellscape in southern Italy.

The mystic whose incorrupt corpse still attracts the faithful.

These delicate sand pyramids look like naturally occurring gothic spires.

A volcanic old faithful, Stromboli has been erupting continuously for the last 2000 years.