If we base our calculations on the UN list of member states, we might conclude that there are 193 countries in the World. But at least three are not taken into consideration by UN – Taiwan, State of Vatican, Kosovo – as this traveller points out. So overall countries should be at least 196.
Others base calculations on places, not on countries. USA is made of several places (its States). Italy of at least 20 places (its Regions). And so on. Which is also reasonable: if I visit Moscow I just visit the capital, not Russia. This makes the list of places to visit much longer: there are 874 places to visit on Earth.
Based on the regular country list and the (less regular) list of places on Earth, I have visited 35 countries and 89 places, which makes me sadly hopeless in trying to reach the ultimate goal of visiting all countries of the planet.
Hope is the last to die, we say in Italy. So let’s start planning to visit missing places (only 785). It’s never too late for vagabonding, after all.