Jason Dries's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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London, England

The Monty Python Foot

The television series' iconic giant foot was borrowed from this classical painting.
London, England

London's Lilliputian Police Station

London's smallest police station is barely the size of a phone booth.
London, England

Davenports Magic Shop

The world's oldest family-run magic shop is hidden beneath a bustling London thoroughfare.
Rome, Italy

Parish Church of Santa Maria del Popolo

A treasure trove of Renaissance-era funerary art in a Roman church built on top of Nero's grave.
Rome, Italy

Saint Victoria's Incorruptible Body

The martyr's wax-enhanced skeletal remains lie preserved in a glass case in the Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome.
Rome, Italy

Rome's Gladiator School

This historic recreationist school churns out warriors that may very well have had a fighting chance in Rome's pits of the day.
Vatican City

La Resurrezione

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

Arch of Gallienus

This Roman arch marks the location of an ancient gate at one of the Seven Hills of Rome.
Rome, Italy

Campo de Fiori

This ritzy Italian market is built around a statue of an unforgiven heretic who was burned for his belief in an endless universe.
Rome, Italy

Meridian Line of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs

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

Basilica di San Clemente

A Nesting Doll of Churches.
Rome, Italy

The Mouth of Truth

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

The Dome Illusion

A master of trompe-l'oeil creates a stunning, tourist-fooling dome out of a flat ceiling.
Rome, Italy

Torre Argentina (Roman Cat Sanctuary)

Hundreds of lucky felines haunt the ruins where Caesar was murdered.
Rome, Italy

Santa Maria della Concezione Crypts

The crypts of Capuchin friars decorated with the bones of over 4,000 friars, including an entire "crypt of pelvises."
San Francisco, California

Treasure Island

A man-made island in scenic San Francisco Bay.
San Francisco, California

San Francisco Botanical Garden

Golden Gate Park's historic collection of plants.
San Francisco, California

The Shipwrecks at Land's End

A 300-ship graveyard, with a few still visible at low tide.
San Francisco, California

Palace of Fine Arts

The last remaining relic of San Francisco's glittering 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.
San Francisco, California

Japanese Tea Garden

Relics of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition continue to delight visitors today.
San Francisco, California

Ruins of the Sutro Baths

The seawater playground of gilded-era San Francisco burned to the ground in 1966.
San Francisco, California

Labyrinth at Land’s End

A winding path built in secret on the edge of the continent.
San Francisco, California

Alcatraz Island

In all of the 29 years it was in operation, no prisoners ever escaped successfully... or so they claim.
San Jose, California

Rosicrucian Park

The headquarters of a secretive order is also a beautifully-designed park.