Places Erin Wants to Go

A desert that rolls right up to the ocean, where it's so dry animals live off the fog.

The massive gardens and office of a Brazilian sculptor.

This unique shop is full of memento mori art, antique medical equipment, secret society paraphernalia, and historical relics.

Abandoned for decades, trains still pass through the now-restored remains of one of Madrid's first metro stations.

This eerily well-preserved coal town was saved from destruction by a Sean Connery movie.

Far from the shore, this sandy victim of the Skeleton Coast looks like it was plopped in the middle of the desert.

Ethiopia's "smoking mountain" is in one of the hottest regions on the planet and is home to two lava lakes.

This shop filled with oddities and knick-knacks is named for a 19th-century charlatan.

This charming candle shop has been in business since 1789.

The only remaining collection of flayed figures made by French "madman" Honoré Fragonard.

Entire apothecaries are on display at this Lisbon museum, which explores the history of medicine.

Overlooked amid the tourist bustle of Florence, this museum is dedicated to the craft of stone inlay.

Egyptian Revival movie palace abandoned for decades and restored in 2013.

Religion and personal struggle gave birth to this collection of concrete angels.

An extraordinary house museum and cabinet of curiosities in the heart of Florence.

A salt lake dotted with steaming limestone chimneys.

This Neapolitan exhibition hall grants weird and wonderful insight into the intricacies of human biology.

Visiting this cacophonous collection of vintage novelties is like stepping into the mind of a crazed toymaker.

A curious collection dedicated to human and animal anatomy and pathology.

A self-built castle made by a mysterious man.

Dedicated to the art of hunting, with juxtapositions of contemporary art.

A rare cluster of alien-like plants grows along a dusty highway.

Wondrous sandstone hoodoos where Native Americans collected clay for pottery, 9,000 years ago.

Barcelona's historic 19th-century sewers, whose foundations were laid in medieval times, are open to the public for exploring.