A black cat protests the City Guild in Riga's Old Town.

Flamboyant architecture from the turn of 20th century.

A former Latvian headquarters of the brutal KGB secret police is now open as a grim reminder of their atrocities.

Rat sculptures try to infiltrate the Graybar Building in an architectural tribute to New York City's nautical history.

The oldest family-run luncheonette in New York, last renovated in 1948, still serves food and drinks the old-fashioned way.

Here be dragons.

A controversial magical figure is hidden within a diorama of the city.

A small peaceful park and waterfall tucked amid the urban grind of Midtown Manhattan.

This translucent sculpture represents a quintessential component of New York City's skyline.

Slyly buy a shake in the Parker Meridien lobby.

The walls are decorated with whimsical murals painted by the creator of the Madeline franchise.

A memorial to the first person killed by a motor vehicle in the Western Hemisphere.

Long the exclusive domain of birds and vagabonds, this little-known Central Park peninsula is open to the public once more.

A Milanese café entirely designed by the American director Wes Anderson.

A space dedicated to contemporary art and culture, co-chaired by fashion icon Miuccia Prada.

An exclusive waiting room built for the royal family in the 1920s is hidden in Milan’s central station.

This deconsecrated church has seen many uses, from a tobacco storehouse to a cinema.

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

100 year tradition of fist fights, marked by marble footsteps.

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

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

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

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

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