This post covers the safe, vibrant, culturally rich Old Havana. Havana is the largest city in the Caribbean and in 1982, was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The architecture exhibits a blending of many styles from Art Deco, Neoclassic, Baroque and ugly utilitarian. Many main buildings in Havana have been restored to their original glory, while others are showing signs of the slow process of restoration.

Olana was the eclectic home of Frederic Edwin Church and his wife Isabel. Frederic was one of the major figures in the Hudson River School of landscape painting. The mansion was designed by Mr. Church in conjunction with architect Calvert Vaux and built between 1870 and 1872. A studio wing was added in 1889.

Did you know that that the capital city of Budapest was formed in 1873 joining together two different cities, Buda (on the west bank of the Danube) and the Pest (pronounced Pescht, on the east bank)? Although they are united under one name, they are still referred to separately.

Charles Deering was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was the son of William Deering, founder of Deering Harvester McCormick-International Harvester Company

The Corning Museum displays a comprehensive glass collection with galleries including Eastern, Asian, European, and American glass

Glencairn was originally built as the home of multi-millionaire businessman Raymond and Mildred Glenn Pitcairn and their nine children.

Ann set up a foundation for the perpetual maintenance of this home on 2.5 acres which became this permanent green oasis of art, wildlife, subtropical trees and plants.

The Morse Museum houses the world’s most comprehensive collection of Louis C. Tiffany’s work, including jewelry, pottery, paintings, leaded-glass windows and lamps.

Originally called Evergreen Cemetery, Bonaventure was established on 70 acres of the original Bonaventure Plantation, when the city’s graveyards were getting too full. The cemetery was design in Victorian style with grassy areas and curved pathways.

Las Vegas was founded in 1905, after the opening of a railroad that linked Salt Lake City with Los Angeles.

Old Westbury Gardens is the former estate of John Shaffer Phipps who had the 44-room English manor house house commissioned as a wedding present to his wife, Margarita Grace Phipps. It was completed in 1906 by the English designer George A. Crawley on 200 acres of formal gardens, landscaped grounds, woodlands, ponds and lakes.

The Audrain Automobile Museum in Newport, Rhode Island is a great place to visit for the history buff as well as the art and automobile enthusiast.

The groundbreaking was on March 19, 1882 and the construction will continue well into 2026, and the building facade design is taken from the holy scriptures and nature as models. When completed, the building will have eighteen towers.

St. Patrick’s is the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland and dates from 1230

In 1924, one of America’s wealthiest couples, started building a fifty-five room, 36,000 square-foot mansion called Ca’ d’Zan (meaning House of John) on Sarasota Bay in Florida.

Alex Munthe said this about Villa San Michele, ‘My house must be open to the sun, to the wind and the voice of the sea, just like a Greek temple, and light, light, light everywhere!’

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was opened in 1870 and boasts 36,000 objects, including 2,500 European Old Masters, Impressionist, and Pos-Impressionist paintings as well as the greatest collection of Egyptian art and artifacts outside Cairo.

The Isabella Stewart Garner Museum, originally called Fenway Court when it opened in 1903. It was founded by Isabella Stewart Garner, whose will called for her art collection to be permanently exhibited ‘for the education and enjoyment of the public forever’. The building was constructed between 1896 and 1903.

The Telfair Museum is the legacy of one visionary, philanthropist Mary Telfair. This former mansion was built 1818-1819, for Alexander Telfair, son of Revolutionary War patriot and Georgia Governor Edward Telfair.

Storm King Art Center is a 500-acre outdoor museum of contemporary sculpture, with ten miles of walking trails, located in the New York’s Hudson Valley.