Jason Dries's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Ione, California

Preston Castle

One of the oldest reform schools in the United States, home to wayward boys such as Merle Haggard, now abandoned.
London, England

The Mayflower Pub

The London pub overlooks where the Mayflower was moored before setting sail for the New World.
Vatican City

Vatican Necropolis

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

OstrichLand USA

Get up close to emus and ostriches, or buy their tasty meat.
Lompoc, California

Lompoc Valley Drive-In

With its peeling paint and faded sign, this theater-turned-recycling plant is a nostalgic relic of 1950s Americana.
San Jose, California

Olympic Black Power Statue

A statue commemorate Tommie Smith and John Carlos's brave protest at the 1968 Olympics, a watershed moment for civil rights.
San Jose, California

Quetzalcóatl Sculpture

It is locally loved and ridiculed for literally looking like poop.
San Jose, California

Monopoly in the Park

The largest permanent Monopoly board makes one of the longest games even bigger.
San Jose, California

Mark's Hot Dogs

For roadside fast food, pull over at the giant orange.
Milpitas, California

Great Mall of Milpitas

This giant shopping mall still holds signs of its automotive past.
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.