Places Stern Wants to Go

On rare days, this abandoned castle's gatekeepers open its doors, revealing the eye-popping splendor hidden inside.

Sitting on an Italian hilltop is this surreal fortress built by the mad inventor of electrohomeopathy.

During World War II, this rice mill became a Nazi concentration camp.

Dug as a secret royal escape route, the tunnel became a wartime bomb shelter and dumping ground for vintage cars.

This 16th-century monastery has been turned into a surrealist architecture compound.

Water and windows define this defensive Italian well.

This quaint Italian town keeps losing ground as the sides of its plateau slowly erode.

Gigantic mosaic sculptures of the figures on Tarot cards fill this colorful Tuscan garden.

Geothermal waterfalls in Tuscany.

A 16th-century horror show built in a lovely Italian garden.

Medieval town turned hippie commune, once home to the secret foreskin of Jesus Christ.

The remains of a town so thoroughly destroyed by French forces that the citizens simply left.

An Italian crevasse filled with abandoned buildings gives visitors a look at the world without humans.