California's own medieval Italian castle, authentic down to the 300-year-old iron maiden in the dungeon.

The southernmost outpost of the Russian Empire in colonial America.

Spend the night in this formerly abandoned traditional Scottish village.

The castle was reconstructed to fit Kaiser Wilhelm II's romanticized vision of the Middle Ages.

This vast kitty-themed collection illustrates the history of human-cat interaction.

These magnificent city walls rise from the barren sun-baked Spanish plains like something straight out of a fairytale.

The storied English village that pretended to be insane inspired NYC's nickname and the fictional namesake in the DC Comics universe.

Hundreds of mummies in a silent room, some with eerily pained expressions preserved on their faces.

A market built atop boats is one of the few floating holiday markets in Europe.

Georges Seurat’s pointillist masterpiece has been recreated in Ohio in topiary form.

A medieval castle in the middle of rural Texas.

Five candy-colored villages on the Italian Riviera.

Filled with goldfish swimming in a shallow pool of sea water, this ancient crypt is more wishing well than burial site.

This 6th-century church has the largest and best-preserved collection of Byzantine mosaics outside Constantinople.

Once an ancient Roman bath, now a hotbed of geothermal energy and a hub for energetic innovations.

Fortified medieval tower house with lovely roof garden.

A large grotto built in the 16th century amidst Florence's famous Boboli gardens.

Secret refuge and museum of the Duke of Florence.

Renaissance villa and gardens complete with a tormented colossus.

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

The famous sculptor left his mark on this Italian wall in an internationally protected example of street art.

Legend has it this fountain built to symbolize the Pope’s power hides a strange secret concerning Neptune's manliness.

Over 100 towers were built in Bologna during the Middle Ages, but only 22 survive.

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