The hallucinogenic center of the ancient world.

Replicas of Apollo's leonine stone guard cats still line a sacred row in Greece.

Perched on a spindly rock spire in a Greek archipelago, this lighthouse would make a perfect wizard's tower.

This smily stone feline is meant to represent a mythical lion that almost destroyed the island of Kea.

Poseidon? No one seems to know.

What once sat in the world’s spotlight is today a largely disused ghost complex.

A Bronze age settlement on the Greek island of Santorini might have been the inspiration for Plato's Atlantis.

A curious cave church carved into the face of a cliff.

A curious little museum dedicated to the furry feline in the cat haven that is Old Town Kotor.

This cluster of little wooden huts once ground local farmers’ wheat into flour during the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

A bridge destroyed three times: once as a ruse, then in an actual attack, and finally for the movies.

There's a mini version of Iguazu Falls hidden in the Balkans, and it's got a rope swing.

A wonderfully strange collection of 500+ stuffed frogs doing people things.

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

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

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

The only museum with its curator—and her pets—buried inside.

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

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

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

Sunset-colored dunes of volcanic ash make taking a poor photo impossible.

A collection of intricate sculptures so small they have to be seen through a microscope.

A midcentury ranch house hides a literal treasure trove of unique rocks and minerals.

A six-foot pair of socks hangs from a drawer of the world's largest bureau.