It’s difficult to feel lost in the modern world. According to numbers collected in December 2012, around five billion of us carry mobile phones, thus allowing us to call up friends and businesses to ask for directions whenever we don’t know where we are.
A billion of those users have smartphones anyway which are full of maps and GPS tracking abilities that use orbiting satellites to let us know where we are to the very square inch. So although it might be hard to truly lose yourself in the phone age, there are a few places where you can still feel that way.
Maze at Fontanellato, near Parma, Italy
Italy’s claim to the biggest maze in the world covers seven hectares (17.5 acres). It was designed by Franco Maria Ricci, a man who made his name as an eccentric magazine publisher.
The Fontanellato maze took the title of world’s biggest from the Dole Plantation Pineapple Garden Maze in Hawaii which, as the name might suggest, looks like a pineapple when seen from the sky.
PATH – Toronto, Canada
The world’s biggest underground shopping centre is a confusing 17-mile labyrinth of tunnels offering nearly 4 million square feet of shopping.
There’s no natural light and endless shops befuddling and enticing you to part with your money – essentially, it’s either heaven or hell depending on your predilections.
Luckily, if it’s your personal hell, there are signposts to help you escape, but shopaholics are free to blissfully ignore these and lose themselves.
Venice, Italy
For centuries, people have enjoyed wandering about this water-logged city and not really cared too much about where they’re going.
Despite advances in roadworks and cars, you’ll find hardly any of that modern rubbish here – just enjoy this perfect time capsule and amble about aimlessly amongst the atria and canals.
(Featured image: paul bica)
