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

Before it was buried by volcanic ash, this fast-food restaurant fed the hungry hordes of ancient Rome.

Erotic art covers the walls of the largest ancient pleasure palace.

Ancient snack bar of the Roman Empire re-opened.

This Italian foot path winds through the mountains via 52 individual tunnels.

Dug as a secret royal escape route, the tunnel became a wartime bomb shelter and dumping ground for vintage cars.

These "anatomical machines" are only one of the many strange items in this Italian crypt.

Drink wine handed out through a window as part of an age-old tradition.

The last moments of the ill-fated Pompeiians, frozen forever in plaster.

Hidden in an Italian forest is a completely homemade amusement park that has taken a lifetime to create.

The doodles of a genius line the walls of a secret room under the Medici Chapel, where they were hidden for nearly 500 years.

One of the best-preserved Roman amphitheaters is still used today, but for less brutal events.

This museum promotes informed contraception by documenting its often secret past.

This cubist Vienna church building looks like some sort of alien stonehenge.

Remnants of a Victorian garden feature sitting in public woodland.

This South London cemetery holds the remains of more than 15,000 people.

The perfectly preserved underground rooms where Churchill plotted the war against Germany.

An easily overlooked stretch of ornate window fronts and gaslight lamps that could be right from the pages of Dickens.

Handsomely crafted representations of our round planet.

This deconsecrated church has seen many uses, from a tobacco storehouse to a cinema.

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

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

This Venice bookstore has resigned itself to constant flooding by keeping its books in bathtubs and boats.

The crypt of the imposing Stephensdom holds royal intestines and thousands of skeletons.