When this funny little building went up in the 19th century, most people thought it would simply fall over.

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

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

Stuck in the arcade of Casa Isolani are three arrows of mysterious origins.

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

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

Time has been frozen at this station since the bombing in 1980—or so it was believed.

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

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

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

One of the largest squares in Europe contains an entire artificial island.

A sudden, striking cluster of hills south of Padua has been attracting visitors for centuries.

A modest museum in the final home of Italian poet and father of modern Italian, Francesco Petrarca.

This Italian church is as beautiful as it is common, except for the real skulls decorating the many mannequins inside.

This Renaissance palace features a unique architectural design and is now home to the Ferrara National Art Gallery.

The chimney of a shuttered power station in the Po Delta is the second-tallest structure in Italy.

One of the oldest still-working clocks in the world sits on an ancient tower.

A bridge to rival those in nearby Venice but without the crowds.

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

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

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

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

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

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