Places Laura Andersen Wants to Go

A brass plaque dedicated to a convicted cannibal hangs in the National Press Club, and that's not even the craziest part of the story.

A new sculpture calls attention to climate change in the centuries-old city it threatens.

The pile of books behind the dignified writer gave the statue a most undignified nickname.

Originally a leper colony, the island is now an Armenian monastery that's home to an incredible manuscript library and eclectic museum.

This Roman statue is missing a limb from when the Venetians stole it from Constantinople during the Crusades.

Hanging within this medieval church are the bones of a beast allegedly slain by a fourth-century saint.

Thousand-year-old Viking runes adorn an ancient Greek lion at the entrance to the Venetian Arsenal.

Where Venice's gondolas go for a tune-up.

Two stone columns flank the grand Venice square, but there were supposed to be three.

The marble facade hides a little-known medical museum with early surgical instruments and rare copies of canonical texts.

An extensive collection of reliquaries containing the bones of saints housed in the largest Catholic church in Venice.

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

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

This abandoned island off the Venetian coast has been a radical monastery, a political prison, and a secret Nazi base.

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

The plague quarantine island home to the alleged "Vampire of Venice."

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

Venice's "Island of the Mad."

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

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

The home-turned-museum of Barış Manço, the mustachioed Turkish Elvis for children.

No one is sure if the world's fourth-largest diamond had been found in a rubbish heap or was pawned by Napoleon's mom.

The legendary luxury train passage is commemorated with a charming museum inside its former eastern terminus.

Ancient serpentine sacrifice holder that has stood the test of time.