Places Ian Engweiler Wants to Go

A stately castle in the northern Italian countryside has been restored after years of neglect.

A lonesome Moai stands in a small Italian town some 9,000 miles away from its Easter Island brethren.

The roof of this ancient mausoleum is made from a single Istrian stone weighing a massive 230 tons.

A haunting collection of sunken wooden barges litters this Italian river bend.

This building has a giant piercing through one of its corners.

Templar knights fleeing persecution are said to have left this sword in stone as a landmark in 1307.

These artificial caves crafted by ancient Romans were elaborate fish farms for moray eels.

A striped 12th-century basilica sits in the countryside of Sardinia.

The Italian revolutionary's legendary wife is portrayed on horseback waving a gun and holding her child in this memorial on the Janiculum.

An island on the Venetian Lagoon hosts this stone chair that has nothing to do with the King of the Huns.

A schoolhouse and chapel are all that remains of this alpine village.

This uncanny fresco celebrating the "triumph of death" was split into four pieces to be moved to another museum.

Massive galleon from a box-office bomb docked in Genoa.

Legend said this huge, gnarled tree sheltered the saint during a storm.

A 17th-century doorway in a small Sabine village is a portal into the mysteries of alchemy.

The Cathedral of St. Ambrose has been hiding a special parishioner within its walls.

Built to be the ideal penitentiary, this abandoned panopticon saw several revolts and even a prisoners' coup.

The 1,000-year-old abbey is the birthplace of modern musical notation.

A massive mausoleum towers over the gravestones in a 19th-century Italian "model village."

This Italian pyramid is said to hold the mingled remains of the dead from both sides of the Battle of Novara.

Despite their macabre past, these hooks are said to bring good luck to those who touch them.

A cherry tree growing atop a mulberry tree.

This lesser-known leaning tower is all that remains of the medieval castle of Vernazzano.

These caves are home to a small church and were used to age cheese.