What’s the most beautiful city in the world?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Paris. No question.
It’s been three weeks and I still can taste the mussels and wine…
Paris still has its Medieval gates, and you can get a few miles beyond the Peripherique and see the most beautiful farmland in the world. Yet downtown, the river flows through gorgeous architecture and people who actually love it.
And all the fragrant blossoms everywhere, especially in spring and early summer. HUGE public gardens. Huge public spaces in general!
I love Paris! Vienna would be a runner-up for architecture though. But Paris has it all, including artists, everywhere, capturing its magnificence!
Pfffft! We’re talking instruments in the Welcome Wagon. You can keep your filthy, human-infested cities 😉
(Portland, OR – which will probably change when I get to Europe someday)
Portland is lovely, as small cities go. I used to live not far from there. But it’s no Paris. Go, Man Egee! Treat yourself!!!
Any of the historical centers in Spain or Italy — but it could be that the Romance languages enchant me. Can’t say that I would turn up my nose at London either.
I think London is a bit more sterile than Paris. It doesn’t have the beauty and openness of Paris. In London, lots of buildings are just foursquare. In Paris, nearly every building in the old part of town has some design or statue or relief on it. They just go the extra mile.
And the Thames is no match for the Seine, nor Big Ben a match for the Eiffel Tower! 😀 This is of course just my personal preference at work, you understand. I think I also love it because I don’t already know the language, or at least, not well!
My cousins in Turin love to point out the French-influenced architecture of their city, mansard roofs and tree-lined avenues for example, because of the Savoia royal family. After seeing a few of the palaces, I’m surprised it took until the late 1940s to get rid of the monarchy. I guess decades of fascism keep the people from complaining too much about the opulence and inequitable income distribution.
With the approval of the new constitution after WW2, the monarchy lost its power — for supporting fascism — and no male family members were allowed to set foot on Italian soil (recently rescinded). Due to the hasty retreat of the Savoia into France (from when they came), some of the palaces, now museums, still have the family furniture. It was kind of cool seeing the Deco furniture in some of the rooms of a Baroque hunting palace. It was kind of not cool thinking of the economic hardship of the average Italian at the time.
How about the Doge’s Disneyland on the Adriatic? Boy, could those old-time Venetians loot and steal!
I tend to agree, and would add Praha.
Outside Europe; Kathmandu (the three cities of Bhaktapur, Patan and Kathmandu) with the incredible abundance of temples and holy places – though it also has no shortage of poverty.
Munich. Just thinking about it gives me the chills.
Madison, Wisconsin in been there once in late fall.
Never seen such flowers…if you just saw one window basket, you’d know the month.
We spend about 4 weeks a year in a little town called La Charité sur Loire, where the building code insists that the downtown buildings look hundreds of years old! The wall is there, the river, the cobblestones and the 1000 year old church.
Had a cup of coffee in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower a couple weeks ago…people wanted to talk politics. Maybe if Americans sat and talked more often, they’d fight less often.
Maybe that is the problem, too many Americans don’t sit and talk they just shout AT you as if their opinion is the only one worth having.
Stop blaming the “Americans.” It’s the power elite like Murdoch, the Bush Crime Family, the boards of GE and Martin-Marietta that spend too much time over coffee planning their golden years at the demise of the entire planet.
I may live in this country, but I’m not responsible for it’s recklessness. Fuck, I’ve been a leftie socialist liberal my entire life, and walked the walk as best you can in this crushing capitalist/fascist society.
We can agree and disagree…
I totally agree that the billionaires I call the “back room boys” are working hard to control the world and remake it in their image. It will take a miracle to beat them.
But we should also consider how we can reshape American society into a more open, tolerant political group. It’s easy to imagine our founding fathers enjoying coffee (not tea) and having the same sorts of conversations. The fact that we consider honest discussions impolite (except in this medium) contributes to our ability to be suckered by the back room boys.
I lived in Paris for a year. It is really beautiful. But for cuteness, Heidleberg is the winner.
In the U.S., I don’t think cities get much better than San Francisco (yeah, I know, I’m biased). Seattle is pretty, too.
I also think that San Francisco is the best in the US.
Sigh. I need a trip up to the Bay Area.
Sedona, Az.
Barcelona is vibrant and especially interesting to Gaudi and Picasso fans.
My other favorite is Kaiserslautern, (but perhaps more due to the wonderful food and drink) 😉
Wow ID. Kaiserslautern? I used to live near there. The food and drink were great. But for GE I’d have to say Wiesbaden/Mainz area. From what I understand it’s not like it used to be, but it was beautiful when I lived there.
khiva, uzbekistan. it was declared a museum city by the soviet union and so nothing has been built there for almost 100 years. walking there, past persian madrassas and mosques, feels like you’re in the arabian nights. there’s a small part of “orlando” that was filmed in khiva.
i was there in 2003. one night when i was visiting there was a blackout. and i went walking through the streets under a full moon. the blue tiles glowed blue in the moonlight. i’ve never seen anything like it. seriously, it blows away paris, or any other european city
I just can’t help but think the further crime of blowing up the minarets was done by the DIA or CIA to continue to give the neocons a reason to keep troops in Iraq, and further inflame the region.
I just can’t stop myself from thinking it’s the administration’s doing.
Cape Town, South Africa. Gorgeous Dutch Colonial buildings, a tastefully developed waterfront, surrounded by incredible mountains that seem to shoot straight up into the sky, zebras in the parks, beaches, history and one of the most progressive and open-minded cultures in the world (really!).