Places daveschaaf Wants to Go

A breathtaking bridge that crosses a vast gorge over a river's torrents, and has a tale of a devil architect attached.

A once-thriving hotel in the Swiss Alps couldn't compete with climate change.

This whimsical castle of grottoes was the labor of love of a French postman, and one of the greatest achievements of outsider architecture.

A fake medieval village in the middle of Turin.

The astonishing collection of an infamous criminologist.

Now an entertainment complex, the Lingotto building was once an avant-garde auto factory with a test track on the roof.

The mountaintop inspiration for Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose."

These quaint French houses dangle precariously over a precipice.

The highest waterfall in Italy is only "turned on" five times a year.

The oldest botanical garden in the world that technically isn't the oldest.

The tomb of the mythological founder of Padua is not hidden in some obscure crypt, but stands right in the middle of the city square.

The world's oldest surviving anatomical theater, where "the dead are pleased to help the living."

One of the world's oldest working clocks is curiously missing the Zodiac sign of Libra.

Machismo turned on its head: the lady's hand goes to the dude with the bigger brain.

The sinister ruins of one of the worst dam failures of the 20th century lie in this astonishing alpine setting.

The skulls and bones of thousands of soldiers line the walls of this small Italian chapel.

This Italian foot path winds through the mountains via 52 individual tunnels.

This centuries-old Italian chapel hangs midway down a sheer cliffside.

This winding road through an Italian canyon may be the most scenic drive in the world.

In the world's oldest university is a stunning 17th century anatomical theater carved from spruce.

Legend has it this fountain built to symbolize the Pope’s power hides a strange secret concerning Neptune's manliness.

A stunning bridge that appears as if it's lunging to the shore, and has a legend of a devilish architect.

A factory director designed what was the world's longest suspension footbridge in 1923 so his employees could get to work safely.

David Sedaris called it "The greatest shop in the world."