timspeaker's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Rome, Italy

Santa Maria della Concezione Crypts

The crypts of Capuchin friars decorated with the bones of over 4,000 friars, including an entire "crypt of pelvises."
Florence, Italy

Fresco of John Hawkwood

In Florence's great Duomo, a 26 foot fresco honors a mercenary famous for attacking Florence.
Florence, Italy

Buontalenti Grotta

A large grotto built in the 16th century amidst Florence's famous Boboli gardens.
Florence, Italy

The Bull of Santa Maria del Fiore

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

Michelangelo's Hidden Drawings

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

Il Porcellino

This bronze boar's snout has been rubbed to a golden sheen by visitors seeking good fortune.
Ypsilanti, Michigan

Ypsilanti Water Tower

Lovingly nick-named the "Brick Dick" this municipal tower was winner of the World's Most Phallic Building Contest.
Naples, Italy

Gabinetto Segreto

The once forbidden "secret cabinet" of erotic art from excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Florence, Italy

Santa Maria Novella Pharmacy

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

Ospedale degli Innocenti (Hospital of the Innocents)

Renaissance hospital featuring a rotating door into which unwanted babies were dropped.
San Gimignano, Italy

The Museum of Medieval Torture

Medieval torture techniques with a modern conscience.
Pompeii, Italy

Plaster Citizens of Pompeii

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

The Brothels of Pompeii

Erotic art covers the walls of the largest ancient pleasure palace.
Pompeii, Italy

Thermopolia of Pompeii

Ancient snack bar of the Roman Empire re-opened.
Civita, Italy

Civita di Bagnoregio

This quaint Italian town keeps losing ground as the sides of its plateau slowly erode.
Vatican City

Gallery of Maps - Galleria delle Carte Geografiche

Breathtaking and huge 430 year old maps of Italy.
Vatican City

Vatican Necropolis

Hidden beneath the famous St. Peter's Basilica is a veritable city of the dead that may hold the remains of St. Peter himself.
Rome, Italy

Campo de Fiori

This ritzy Italian market is built around a statue of an unforgiven heretic who was burned for his belief in an endless universe.
Rome, Italy

The Dome Illusion

A master of trompe-l'oeil creates a stunning, tourist-fooling dome out of a flat ceiling.
Rome, Italy

Meridian Line of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs

Installed in an act of one-upsmanship, the annual sundial in this church is also a symbolic victory for the Gregorian calendar.
Istanbul, Turkey

Basilica Cisterns of Istanbul

A marvel of Byzantine engineering under the streets of Istanbul.
Istanbul, Turkey

Kaiser Wilhelm Fountain

A fountain standing as a testament to a doomed alliance.
Istanbul, Turkey

Piri Reis Map at Topkapi Palace

1513 Turkish world map, full of European state secrets and snarky commentary.
Istanbul, Turkey

Tombs of the Sultans

Five sultans and their families rest in eternal splendor, teeming with overlooked beauty and drama.