Places xxrye Wants to Go

Perfectly preserved ancient monastery in an impossibly dramatic location on a rocky island in the Atlantic.

If you want to talk to the Pope you will have to stare down this surreal vision of Jesus rising from a nuclear hell.

Installed in an act of one-upsmanship, the annual sundial in this church is also a symbolic victory for the Gregorian calendar.

Hidden beneath the famous St. Peter's Basilica is a veritable city of the dead that may hold the remains of St. Peter himself.

The yawning maw of this pagan visage is said to bite off the hands of liars.

Rome’s legendary peephole vista is also a former Crusader stronghold.

A dismembered holy head stares out from her beautiful reliquary at the St. Dominic Basilica.

Go inside to really appreciate this 500-year-old technological masterpiece.

A recreation of an Old West apothecary full of curios.

White beach sands made of the remains of tiny, star shaped creatures.

Historical Japanese-Dutch relations are honored with haunted rides and flower fields in this replica town.

Tokyo’s only Vaudeville-cuckoo clock–steampunk-Victorian curio cabinet time piece.

A magical place that lets you play in and explore the world of Studio Ghibli.

On Japan's Tashirojima Island, cats are king.

This tiny lake temple dedicated to a water goddess seems to float on the surface.

Isolated atop this Balinese sea crag is a lovely Hindu temple that is said to be guarded by sea snakes.

A precariously perched golden rock defies gravity and brings pilgrims from across Myanmar.

The many—66 to be exact—faces of the German forest.

A cave in southern Italy adorned with thousand-year-old Biblical frescoes existed in obscurity until fairly recently.

A gorgeous medieval library where the books are kept in chains.

This natural gas vent certainly earns its name as the smallest volcano in Italy.

An Italian geologic wonder that served as the inspiration for the landscape of Dante's hell.

A mapping error in the 19th century made loggers think this section of the forest was underwater.

J.R.R Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and other "Inklings" met at the Oxford pub to discuss the now legendary fantasy stories they were writing.