Places elainemellis Wants to Go

Giant, pink stuffed rabbit on an Italian mountain.

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

Jesus' footprints and the first catacombs in the world.

Go inside to really appreciate this 500-year-old technological masterpiece.

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 final resting place of the poets Shelley and Keats.

Sitting on an Italian hilltop is this surreal fortress built by the mad inventor of electrohomeopathy.

An ossuary built in 1210 to collect bones from the Ospedale Maggiore of Milan.

2300-year-old Roman road connecting the empire.

The only "Egyptian" pyramid in Europe and the legendary tomb of Remus.

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

At the crypt of St. Mary of Eulogies and the Dead you are left alone to ponder mortality among piles of skulls.

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

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

The middle finger of modernity.

A master of trompe-l'oeil creates a stunning, tourist-fooling dome out of a flat ceiling.

Architectureal fantasy quarter of Rome.

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

This statue of a falling man commemorates a teenage martyr of the Hungarian Revolution.

Late at night, the bust of the "Dracula" actor was snuck onto the facade of this Budapest castle.

This hidden art nouveau gem was designed by an architect in search of a national style.

The romantic garden was the epicenter of the Hungarian art scene in the 1880s.

Tucked away near more famous landmarks lies a statue meant to symbolize the confluence and continuing development of human culture.

Once the home of a hermetic monk, this cave now houses a small church.