Places craigmutter Wants to Go

A sinister pyramid in the Frari contains the heart of the famous neoclassical sculptor.

This palatial spiral staircase was so unusual the name "snail" was given to the noble family who built it.

Venice's "Island of the Mad."

As can be expected from a centuries-old church built in a canal city, the undercroft of this house of worship is beautifully flooded.

This community on a small Venetian island has taken to painting their houses in bright neon hues.

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

The largest and most famous wax anatomical collection anywhere in the world.

A large grotto built in the 16th century amidst Florence's famous Boboli gardens.

The oldest operating pharmacy in the world features 800-year-old recipes.

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

Storms, funding, and in-fighting have kept this Bermuda church from ever being completed.

A Seattle oddities shop brimming with Victorian-era gems and antique curio.

This working class sculpture pounds his hammer all the livelong day.

A walk through the historic city center, under the streets of Seattle.

With its vaulted ceiling and gilded details, this University of Washington library would feel right at home inside an old palace.

This unique Seattle structure was designed to be the greenest commercial building on the planet.

This contemporary art museum is filled with other, smaller museums, which feature work from artists primarily in the Pacific Northwest.

Allowing humans and fish alike to migrate from freshwater to saltwater and back again.

A collection of odd-shaped and quirky sounding instruments handmade by a midcentury inventor-composer.

A nondescript Seattle restaurant inherited a piece of European history.

This 22-acre botanical garden is home to the largest collection of rhododendrons in the world.

Every summer West Seattle experiences a housing bloom.

From a neon Rapunzel to a bike traffic meter to a street fair color scheme, the most opened drawbridge in the US is a veritable art gallery.

The historic bar where local ship captains, traders, and gold miners would come together to do business a century ago.