Places BOEK Wants to Go

A statue of the heroic plumber stands outside a company that bluffed its way into being Nintendo’s Scandinavian distributor.

Near-constant high winds deform the trees on Spruce Knob, the highest point in West Virginia.

This former fire tower found new life as a communications hub complete with a scenic overlook.

Spectacular mineral formations fill these caves, which have been used for everything from smoking meat to stashing illicit liquor.

This harrowing climb along West Virginia's jagged spires is one of the only Via Ferrata on America's east coast.

Tubing through a cave lit with glowworms is a magical underground experience.

Winter and summer solstice aligned sculpture in the middle of nowhere.

The first space rock known to have struck a human.

A monument to the Mohawk people stands along an old Native American trade route.

This sculptural piece by the artist Tom Otterness doubles as a jungle gym.

The boulder on which Alexander Hamilton laid his head after a deadly duel can still be visited on the New Jersey coast.

Every autumn, this grove of living fossils erupts in a blaze of brilliant golden-yellow leaves and stinky fruit.

This bright yellow relic is the final survivor of a short burst of seashell-shaped petrol pumps.

Berkeley Springs State Park boasts the nation's only monument commemorating presidential bathing.

Invented in the mid-19th century, this machine could send copied images via telegraph lines.

More than 450 years ago, an Italian nun became the first woman to paint the iconic subject.

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

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

Secret refuge and museum of the Duke of Florence.

This private skyway is filled with art and was expanded explicitly so that Hitler could appreciate a river.

Over 50 exquisite hand-painted Renaissance maps decorate a Medici storage room.

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

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

Art and armour fill every inch of this rich kid's Italian villa.