Places jakechouston Wants to Go

Venice's "Island of the Mad."

A small island less than half a mile from Venice is a forbidden island with a dark and twisted past.

The oldest of Venice's plague quarantine stations, designed to keep the medieval city safe from disease.

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

Costumed elves and mountain bikers co-exist peacefully at this abandoned Christmas-themed adventure park.

Abandoned bridge hidden deep in the San Gabriel Mountains.

This water-tower-turned-high-end-apartment building was once the site of an early Nazi concentration camp.

How Quincy, Florida became the richest town per capita due to one man's shrewd business acumen and taste for fizzy drinks.

In Florida, these naughty monkeys live on their own mini-monkey Alcatraz.

The remnants of the fortress that saved Georgia from the Spanish still stand guard on their swampy island.

This angular brutalist playground turns playtime into modern art time.

Developers built a Walmart around one family's plot and constructed a mausoleum in the parking lot.

The beauty of urban decay, hiding some dark secrets.

One of the largest-ever mental hospitals now sits abandoned, surrounded by 25,000 unmarked graves.

Giant instrument-shaped home in Fayetteville, Georgia.

A man's home is his castle.

A vision of beautiful Hindu architecture in the middle of the American South.

One New Hampshire alleyway has become home to a public gallery of feline art.

Explore the dark underground corridors of this graffiti-covered former military fortification.

The first "applecore" style lighthouse in Nova Scotia.

This enormous Hindu temple in Queens serves incredible dosas in its basement canteen.

A once crucial portion of the Long Island railroad still lays abandoned, waiting to be turned into an urban park.

This Orthodox Church's exterior is rather unorthodox.

Read between the lines of the subway map to find the hidden abandoned Civil War fort.