Legend says this mysterious stone head belongs to a woman who was petrified by an alchemist.

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

An Italian geologic wonder that served as the inspiration for the landscape of Dante's hell.

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

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

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

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

One of the world's oldest working clocks is curiously missing the Zodiac sign of Libra.

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

This seaside Italian village doesn't just look Escher-esque, it actually inspired the mind-bending artist.

The walls and streets of the ancient city are peppered with penises.

Ancient ruins hidden underneath a modern luxury hotel.

The first Russian Orthodox church in the Catholic city of Rome in almost a thousand years.

Machismo turned on its head: the lady's hand goes to the dude with the bigger brain.

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

Beautiful views and Roman-style statues on the Italian coast.

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

These gutted monastery ruins still stand proudly in the middle of the Italian countryside.

Ham is serious business at the Prosciutto Museum-Serious, delicious business.

The graveyard is filled with beautiful funerary art and boasts breathtaking views of Florence.

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

Overlooked amid the tourist bustle of Florence, this museum is dedicated to the craft of stone inlay.

A sulfuric hellscape in southern Italy.

Gods clash with machines in a power plant regenerated as a museum.