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

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

The first botanical garden, a feather in the cap of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

A spiritual sanctuary in a natural cave.

The Cathedral of St. Ambrose has been hiding a special parishioner within its walls.

A unique form of erosion created an uncanny landscape of boulders perched atop slender columns of clay.

The incorrupt tongue of the patron saint of lost things is venerated in this basilica.

What looks like a link in Gondor's early warning system is actually a centuries-old Italian fortress.

A medieval fountain lined with 99 unique stone faces whose origins and meaning remain unknown.

Cave shrine on Monte Pellegrino.

The oldest botanical garden in the world that technically isn't the oldest.

Stumbling upon this whimsical wooded garden is like stepping into an enchanted forest full of philosophical musings.

In the world's oldest university is a stunning 17th century anatomical theater carved from spruce.

A treasure trove of Renaissance-era funerary art in a Roman church built on top of Nero's grave.

The mountaintop inspiration for Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose."

Macabre symbols of death and mummies on display set the tone of this Italian purgatory church.

The forbidden island of the Tuscan Archipelago may still contain buried treasure.

On the coast of Sardinia, a once-great mining village is finding new life as a coastal resort town.

A collection of grotesques lines the walls of this Italian villa.

The Emperor Tiberius' palace of debauchery.

A preserved dragon's rib that remembers the legend of the founding of the city of Atessa.

The naturally mummified body of a peasant girl saint.

The mystic whose incorrupt corpse still attracts the faithful.

The highest waterfall in Italy is only "turned on" five times a year.