Places Stern Wants to Go

The 19th-century pharmacy (now a used bookstore) was featured in James Joyce’s "Ulysses," and has changed very little to this day.

The world's oldest bookshop still in operation.

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

Where beer lovers can literally immerse themselves in beer.

An all-American grocery store in Paris sells U.S. "cuisine" like Pop-Tarts and Heinz ketchup to homesick ex-pats.

In addition to fine dairy products, the world's most beautiful milk shop also offers a feast for the eyes.

This 14th century wine cellar is home to the oldest barrel-stored wine in the world.

In this Parisian garden's grotesque former life as a zoo it fed exotic animals to the bourgeois and put humans on exhibit.

The deserted pirate-themed restaurant still entices explorers.

A self-built mosaic house and sculpture park.

Sacked by Vikings, blessed by William the Conqueror, dealt a fatal blow during the French Revolution—these ruins have seen it all.

To the famous surrealist artist, liberty required two torches held high.

Two small chapels housed inside an ancient tree.

An underground city of ancient quarry tunnels hid thousands of Allied soldiers in WWI.

The somewhat misnamed 'Garden of Shells' lovingly built from found objects.

One man's stunning attempt at eco-friendly living.

An ancient monastery, a locked room, and a mysterious book heist.

A Black Forest cuckoo clock theme park features one timepiece big enough to walk inside.

Enter the cabin of a life-sized Hindenburg replica.

Romans built the world's tallest artificial waterfall in 271 BC.

An unusual house built using an iso-elastic membrane.

This real life asylum of horrors is now an abandoned ruin that hides the unbreakable code to one patient's insanity.

The doodles of a genius line the walls of a secret room under the Medici Chapel, where they were hidden for nearly 500 years.

This half-finished "city of toys" was almost Italy's own Las Vegas.