Surreal Places You Didn’t Know Existed
From China’s Atlantis to Dante Alighieri’s final resting place...
I recently came across a Japanese word that I instantly loved: Komorebi (木漏れ日) describes sunlight streaming through the leaves of trees, weaving a delicate dance of light and shadow that seems to breathe with the rhythm of the forest itself.
And, as often happens when you learn a new word or notice a fragment of the world you hadn’t seen before, it suddenly starts appearing everywhere. You begin to wonder: was it always there, hiding in plain sight, or did the universe just decide to wink at you?
That’s exactly what happened to me a few days later at Vezio Castle in northern Italy. For a brief moment, sunlight filtered through the trees, painting the world in patterns that felt almost unreal. This spectacle was made even more magical by the setting itself: the castle overlooks Lake Como and is surrounded by mysterious ghost sculptures — which I’ll tell you about in just a moment.
Some places on this Earth blur the line between reality and dream. The moment you recognize something familiar in a new way — like realizing the sunlight dancing through leaves has a name — your world expands. Travel offers the same gift on a grander scale: it challenges assumptions, broadens perspectives, and awakens the mind. Today, I want to take you to 6 of the most enchanting — and sometimes Kafkaesque — corners of the globe, because, as Mark Twain wrote in The Innocents Abroad:
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.
So let’s wander beyond the familiar, and step into the extraordinary…
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1. Crypt of San Magno
They call it the “Sistine Chapel of the Middle Ages,” and stepping inside you’ll understand why…
Located in Anagni, in the province of Frosinone, Lazio, Italy, the crypt of Anagni Cathedral is dedicated to St. Magnus, the patron saint of the city. During the episcopate of Pandulf, from 1237 to 1256, the walls were adorned with frescoes illustrating the history of humanity’s salvation, from its beginnings to the Last Judgment.
Across its twenty-one panels, scenes from the Old and New Testaments — such as the story of the Ark of the Covenant and the Apocalypse — appear alongside a rare and significant cycle on the creation of the world.
This cycle illustrates the proportional union of the four elements with humanity, presenting the concept of the microcosm within the macrocosm. The depiction is further enriched by the figures of the physicians Hippocrates and Galen, as well as by the Platonic Theory of the Elements.
It’s one of the most fascinating places I’ve visited lately.
2. Castle of Vezio
This isn’t AI. This place is real, and the legend behind these ghost sculptures has whispered through generations of locals for centuries… Yet its story is far stranger — and more haunting — than you could ever imagine…
