Thousand-year-old Viking runes adorn an ancient Greek lion at the entrance to the Venetian Arsenal.

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

This community on a small Venetian island has taken to painting their houses in bright neon hues.

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

An extraordinary house museum and cabinet of curiosities in the heart of Florence.

An incredible menagerie of more than 3 million taxidermied animals at the oldest science museum in Europe.

Secret refuge and museum of the Duke of Florence.

The oldest operating pharmacy in the world features 800-year-old recipes.

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

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

Plaques on its facade commemorate the Tiber's most destructive deluges.

This subterranean shrine beneath a bike rental store celebrates the iconic Italian scooter.

A modern sliver of architecture in Roma.

A magnificent waterfall is also home to the remains of a Roman hydraulic engineering system.

2300-year-old Roman road connecting the empire.

You can row a boat through this ancient underground reservoir.

One of only three fountains created by the iconic architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

The maze-like transportation hub contains abandoned areas, derelict stores, and a resident bat colony.

An ancient Egyptian obelisk is now used to commemorate fallen Italian soldiers.

This statue is the only female representation of Rome's "talking statues."

The site of London's first coffee house has been serving refreshments of one kind or another for 360 years.

Only a few pieces remain of the structure that carried people and goods across the Thames for some 600 years.

A Roman spa buried deep beneath the City of London.

A hurricane-stricken oak tree has been reborn as a beautiful chainsaw artwork.