Places chrissyml Wants to Go

Renaissance villa and gardens complete with a tormented colossus.

Rome’s legendary peephole vista is also a former Crusader stronghold.

This hidden Art Nouveau courtyard is an opulent feast for the eyes.

The yawning maw of this pagan visage is said to bite off the hands of liars.

A small island less than half a mile from Venice is a forbidden island with a dark and twisted past.

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

Hundreds of lucky felines haunt the ruins where Caesar was murdered.

A 16th-century horror show built in a lovely Italian garden.

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

An Italian crevasse filled with abandoned buildings gives visitors a look at the world without humans.

To enter this cluttered-yet-cozy sanctum of Belgian brews, ring the bell and tell the gatekeepers you've come “to taste beer.”

This small corner bar is home to a rare 1930s dance organ that still plays tunes for one Euro.

The compass on its front was a handy tool for 17th-century merchants who needed to know the direction of the wind.

This gruesome biblical parade celebrates the one day a year that a bit of Jesus' blood turns to liquid.

The former home of a trailblazing surrealist is still filled with haunting dolls and grim paintings.

This recently restored crypt was once plagued by liquefying coffins and exploding caskets.

The patron of this extravagant Art Nouveau confection insisted that nothing less than a boat should project from its facade.

The Belgian royal family's private depot now stands abandoned and forgotten alongside the tracks.

Each time a baby is born in Ghent, these streetlights flash in silent celebration.

Dummies recreate radiological discoveries from history.

Potato-peeling mannequins, Inca art, and a dangling tuber mobile help trace the history of fries at this Belgian museum.

A wonderfully kitsch bookstore the size of a supermarket.

An undulating wicker beast looms peacefully atop a sand dune in Belgium.

The highest point in Belgium is a staircase to nowhere.