Climb the dead electric pylons of Messina.

The floor of this spectacular Baroque sanctuary is covered in memento mori.

Dynastic Home of the De Piro Family.

Abandoned Roman Catholic chapel abused by Satanists before being restored.

Burial grounds for more than 1,000 bodies deep under the modern town of Rabat.

These lesser-known Maltese catacombs date back over 1,700 years.

This prison on the Maltese island of Gozo is almost 500 years old, and they have the graffiti to prove it.

A mysterious ancient elephant said to possess magic powers is now the symbol of a Sicilian city.

The world's most active stratovolcano is almost always erupting.

"Stairs of the Turks", a chalky white cliff eroded conveniently into stairs, allowing for easy pillaging.

Tourists to the mountaintop Sicilian town often overlook its ancient fortifications.

This amazingly preserved Doric temple was abandoned before it was ever completed.

Every inch of this chapel is covered in craftsmanship from across the world.

Behind medieval walls in a corner of bustling Palermo is a breathtaking former mosque once inhabited by a wolf-taming hermit.

This Arabesque Italian castle was built with a primitive, if ingenious, air-conditioning system.

This mosaic-lined medieval church was built by the world's first admiral and still holds mass in ancient Greek.

This skeletal, unfinished Gothic church once housed a miraculous masterpiece by Raphael.

Leveled by an earthquake, this Italian village is now preserved as a massive concrete art project.

One of the few existing, fully functional Showbiz Pizza animatronic shows.

Invading U.S. troops were first seen from this now-abandoned tower, leading to the Spanish-American War.

The marshy karst plain has reclaimed this beautiful 17th-century church.

A city block packed with whimsical sculptures that seem to be plucked from a tiled fantasy world.