Extending down the hillside from an existing hotel, a series of matte black structures rise from the deep green landscape like spikes. Without revealing many details, Peter Pichler Architecture has unveiled its vision for unique sustainable “Tree Houses” in the Italian Dolomites – though they’re quite unlike most of the tree houses we’re used to seeing. Taking inspiration from the sharp, dramatic shapes found within these forested mountainous environments, the elevated huts offer sweeping views from two stories of expansive glazing.

Spiked on both ends, the cabins almost seem to have been hammered into the ground. Each one measures 35 – 45 square meters (about 376 – 484 square feet) and features a small sitting area on the lower level and a bedroom and bath on the top floor. Made of local wood with blackened timber exteriors, the structures appear to be quite open to each other, though they might ultimately face in slightly different directions to give the occupants more privacy.

“We believe that the future of tourism is based on the relationship of the human being with nature,” says the Milan-based studio. “Well integrated, sustainable architecture can amplify this relationship, nothing else is needed.”

Though certainly sharper and more dramatic, the new structures aren’t dissimilar from a previous project of Pichler’s. The Obereggen Mountain Hut contains a new restaurant adjacent to the cable station Oberholz in Obereggen, Italy with direct connection to a ski slope. The architect envisions it as a growth emerging from the hill like a fallen tree, with three main branches creating “a symbiosis” with the landscape.

You’ve never experienced Italian Renaissance architecture quite like this. German artist Carsten Höller, known for his playful interactive installations, will be installing a pair of slides in a double helix formation within the famed Palazzo Strozzi of Florence, spiraling visitors nearly 66 feet from the second floor terrace to the courtyard below. Newly released renderings of ‘The Florence Experiment’ show the temporary structure complementing the classic aesthetics of the stone palace completed in 1538. But it’s more than just a fun way to get around the historic building.

Each guest who braves the slide will be asked to hold a plant in their lap for the journey. Once they exit, they’ll hand the plant over to scientists in a laboratory, who will investigate whether human emotion has a verifiable impact on the plant’s growth. Another space within the laboratory will feature two movie screens: one showing comedies, the other horror movies.

The artist theorizes that the contrasting emotions experienced by both audiences will transfer different volatile chemical compounds to wisteria plants growing on the facade of the Palazzo via a system of tubes.

If the renderings make you skeptical, consider this: Höller has pulled off similar slide installations before, including one at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in 2006 and ‘Isometric Slides’ at the Hayward Gallery in London in 2015, pictured above.

Hidden at the bottom of Gulf of Naples in Italy for 1,700 years, the ancient Roman city of Baiae has been revealed to the world after divers were permitted to explore and photograph the site. Historians call Baiae “the ancient Roman version of Las Vegas,” a getaway for the rich and famous where hedonism ran wild. The fashionable resort was popular with the likes of Julius Caesar, Nero and Hadrian, and it was once filled with luxury vacation villas and party houses echoing with rumors of corruption.

Italian photographer Antonio Busiello captured these incredible images of the now-submerged city, whose mosaics, statues and cobblestone streets are now located many feet below the surface of the water where they’ve been taken over by marine life. Researchers studying Baiae have discovered that its villas were made with marble shipped from quarries in Turkey and Greece. Can you guess why it ended up this way? Just look to nearby Pompeii for clues.

That’s right, the very same volcanic activity that provided Baiae and other regional hotspots with natural hot springs for its spas and baths ultimately destroyed it. The city was once located right along the water’s edge, but was eventually claimed by the Gulf. It wasn’t found again until 2014, when heavy flooding south of Naples caused landslides that exposed portions of the city’s old walls.

Experts have been able to identify the individual villas of various Roman historical figures, including Pliny the Younger, who witnessed and documented the 79 C.E. eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

“The beautiful mosaics, and the villas and temples that have reemerged or are still underwater show the opulance and wealth of this area,” says Busiello. “It was considered one of the most important Roman cities for centuries. Diving here is like a dive into history, looking at ancient Roman ruins underwater is something hard to describe, a beautiful experience indeed.”

A ghostly ship sails through the Bay of Sapri in Southern Italy, just translucent enough for onlookers to doubt whether they’re imagining it, its silhouette obscured by a jumble of rectilinear columns. The latest wire mesh masterwork by artist Edoardo Tresoldi, ‘Locus’ is a collaboration with Italian musician IOSONOUNCANE, bringing sculpture and music together in a public performance enjoyed by a crowd gathered on the nearby shore.

The musician debuted his unreleased composition during the installation, presented as part of Sapri’s Derive Festival, an experimental art, music and poetry project curated by Antonio Oriente. The combination of the ship’s visuals, the lighting, the music and the setting truly made it a one-of-a-kind experience, with the sounds amplified by the water.

“Sapri Bay become sone of the characterizing elements of the event, acquiring a temporal and performative dimension,” states the Derive website (translated from Italian. “Collaboration blends different contemporary languages, redefining the relationship between audience and artist in a kind of hic et nunc [here and now] unrepeatable.”

Edoardo Tresoldi is known for his eerily beautiful wire compositions, which are typically architectural in nature, recreating entire classical and historic structures like echoes of churches that fell into ruins centuries ago and palatial interior installations augmented by flying birds.

Anyone who has dreamed of retiring from the rat race to run a grand estate hotel, rural farmhouse bed and breakfast, quaint inn or remote monastery spa could see their wish come true in this unprecedented giveaway from the Italian government.

As part of its Strategic Tourist Plan, Italy is offering up 103 historic sites to those with the will and means to renovate them back into use for tourism purposes. And this is just the initial offering: 200 more are slated to be given away over the coming years.

The State Property Agency and Ministry of Cultural Heritage are leading the project, aiming to draw visitors to beautiful areas with currently disused architecture. In some cases, a lot of work is needed, but that’s the nature of centuries-old structures.

State employee Roberto Reggi says “The project will promote and support the development of the slow tourism sector. The goal is for private and public buildings which are no longer used to be transformed into facilities for pilgrims, hikers, tourists, and cyclists.”

The country has previously auctioned off historic properties, including dozens of lighthouses, with similar goals in mind, but this time they are making it all free, banking on the long-term prospects of the renovations to raise funds for local businesses and the national economy (via Inhabitat).