Oh, shit, how could I forget? For that exotic ancient city beauty, I would have to nominate Samarkand, Uzbekistan, as well.
Frankfurt was one of my biggest surprises in Europe. I’ve always thought of it as just an airport hub and a big financial city–had absolutely no interest in visiting it as a tourist. But it is surprisingly pretty (wouldn’t quite put it “most beautiful” level) and has an interesting mix of European and American style architecture, what with the skyscrapers in the city center. It looks so different than anywhere else I’ve been to on the continent.
It was fall when I was there and it was very gray. If that’s supposed to be the most beautiful time of year, it didn’t do it for me. The gray of the buildings and the sky melded together into a very monochromatic blah.
Another nomination: Cartagena, Colombia. Gorgeous place.
I haven’t travelled anywhere near as much as I’d like, but I’d have to list among mine, in no particular order:
My home town, Montreal. It manages to be beautiful throughout the year, even the sloppy slushy season, like a lady who looks gorgeous in no makeup and a sundress, full makeup and a ball gown or tousled and grimy after fixing her car.
I spent this most recent Winter Solstice morning with two dozen excited Pagans on the top of the Red Rock in San Francisco, watching the sun rise over the Bay in a perfect morning with just a little tracery of clouds. I may have been a little bit high off the circumstances and fatigue toxins, but it was one of the most beautiful cityscapes I’ve ever seen.
As was Venice, seen from the top of the campanile of San Giorgio Maggiore, which I went up on a whim. Heartstopping. Both San Francisco and Venice, otherwise so different, are places where I found myself constantly taking photos just of the urban landscape as I wandered around, not only the “sights.”
Barcelona. Actually, about two-thirds of the towns in Spain and Portugal I visited qualify; off the top of my head, Cordoba, Lisbon, Leon, Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, and Cuenca.
Amsterdam has to be in here someplace, as do Copenhagen and Stockholm.
Carcassonne, France. The old part of town is an actual medieval castle, much of which still exists. I’ve been to a lot of cities, and this was one of the few that truly blew me away.
Among major North American cities, this is pretty much the list.
I will say that whether a city is beautiful or not is not all that important to me. My favorite city is NYC, which isn’t going to win any prizes for beauty.
True enough. I loved London every time I visited there, but it’s pretty much Modern Blocky in style. At least it’s not downright ugly like most of Moscow.
Well, okay. That’s fine, I just didn’t think it was very beautiful. Gray buildings, gray sky; it was boring. Maybe if you live there for a long time, you appreciate the blah-ness of it all, but I like colorful things. It’s not limited to Paris - the bleak grays and browns, not the cold, is to me the worst thing about the Midwestern winter.
That’s why I liked Rome (which I also visited during a chilly and gray time of year) so much more than Paris. It has beautiful and interesting colors everywhere. Also the food is better.
I’ve read that it was basically flattened during the Second World War, and they decided to go all New York in the city centre instead of restoring what was there before.
I’m with you on this one. I’m not sure how an architectural vocabulary that is so over-worked manages to be so boring at the same time. Paris feels like a city made of tombstones stacked four stories high.
