USA/VA: Monticello
Monticello was the tobacco plantation home of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States. The house and the entire estate was designed by Jefferson himself and built with slave labor in 1772. For some reason, the UNESCO deemed this to be of “historical and architectural importance” to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Frankly, I think it’s ridiculous that some plantation house is listed as world heritage while many amazing sites from around the world – castles, fortresses, palaces, and natural gems – are not. Maybe because of this, or perhaps because of pouring rain, or maybe because they wanted $35 per person to see this house and the whole tour being 2 hours of the time we didn’t have – we opted to see the museum and be done with Monticello. Besides, it’s featured on the American 5 cent nickel coin, so can just see it there (by the way the “nickel” is 75% made of copper).
