Jack the Ripper committed a string of 5 murders over a 10-week period in the autumn of 1888, in the then-impoverished East End of London. Specifically, this all went down in and around an area called Whitechapel. What better to do in London for Halloween than go on a late-night Jack the Ripper historical tour? That was the itinerary for Halloween 2025. On Halloween night, we put on our coats and hopped on the tube to meet our tour group in Whitechapel (East London).

As chance would have it, on a quick errand into town, we’d spotted an old brick tower protruding through the trees off in the distance. We were standing on a ridge when we spotted it, and this was on the ridge opposite us, with a valley in between. THIS, we decided, WAS THE DESTINATION FOR OUR QUEST.

Honestly, if we never found our way up to this tower, that would be fine. But it gave us something to orient ourselves toward. The journey is what counts, right?

Well, the journey did not disappoint!

There are few cities on earth—certainly none more notable than Barcelona—whose architectural identities have been shaped so profoundly by just 1 person. Sure, other famous architects have left their mark on some of the other great cities of the world over the years, but none that I can think of whose work has so strongly and completely defined the identity of a single city as Antoni Gaudí for Barcelona. You may never have even heard of Gaudí, but if you know anything about Barcelona, chances are good that when you picture this city, you are picturing something that originated in this guy’s imagination.

So, the “Sisters” are a series of massive hills that have each essentially been sliced down the middle by natural erosive processes to reveal massive, sheer cliffs that stretch along the English coastline like a series of rolling waves. To make the scene all the more striking, these cliffs are entirely white. Perhaps you’ve heard of the “White Cliffs of Dover”? This is part of the same system of cliffs, which is called the “South Downs”, but Seven Sisters is arguably even more iconic because the entire stretch has been kept completely natural and undeveloped. The white color comes from the fact that the earth here is made of an extraordinarily pure form of limestone: chalk! Indeed, the earth here contains about 98–99% calcium carbonate, with very little clay or sand, making them appear dazzlingly white! They stay so white because they are in a constant cycle of erosion, where after some time the outer layers of chalk crumble away revealing fresh, white chalk.

“Cinque Terre” literally translates to 5 lands, and indeed, it is not 1 place, but 5 places. It is a collection of 5 historic towns dotting the rugged, mountainous Mediterranean coastline between La Spezia and Genoa. These towns emerged between 1000 and 1200 AD, and—in their prime—were able to flourish because they combined fishing, boat building, agriculture, and maritime trade. You’ll hear them referred to just as “fishing villages” but that is only part of the story. Agriculture is also massively important to the appearance of these towns even today. The main staple of these towns, in additional to olives, was wine.

I doubt you will be surprised to learn that the Leaning Tower of Pisa was actually not supposed to lean. In 1173, when work began on this structure, the intention was for it to just be your typical free-standing bell tower. Although I should acknowledge that there was really nothing “typical” about this in the 1100s; Italy was leaps and bounds ahead of (most of) the rest of the world, which is part of what makes these sites so incredible. Anyway, construction took about 200 years, including an almost 100-year-long pause due to wars and political instability. It was officially finished in 1372.