9. Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, Miami
Vizcaya is high on the tourist-o-meter but nonetheless worth a visit. Perched right on Biscayne Bay, on Miami's south side, the rambling Italianate mansion that once belonged to industrialist James Deering (of tractor fame) will take you back to a time when Miami was choked with trees instead of traffic. The beautifully maintained 34-room mansion, built in the 1910s, is surrounded by acres of serene European-style gardens chockablock with fountains and statuary, some of which date back to antiquity. The pièce de résistance, however, is the ornamental breakwater that sits right in the bay. Carved out of Florida limestone in the shape of an oversize Venetian barge, it is studded with all kinds of decorative sculpture — and makes for one of the most sublime sunset photo ops in Miami.