Rome and Seville are two cities I’m hankering to visit again. Both have a full-on modern vibe, but are also steeped in history.
Ewww!
Why didn’t you like Barcelona?
Why the eww?
The water’s potable. I don’t know if I would drink where people are throwing coins but there are a lot of little side springs at the fountain where you can easily get a nice cold drink. I saw several people doing exactly that when I was there. The water in Rome is fabulous – cold and delicious.
Heidleberg and Rottenberg. I love German food and middle ages architecture
Is that Heidelberg and Rotenburg?
Hard to enjoy its obvious ample charms when you’re trying not to get mugged, pickpocketed every 5 minutes. A lovely city but with some of the scummiest people I’ve ever encountered. Dublin has its fair share of ne’erdowells but the sheer volume of incidents I encountered including one direct attempt at mugging me put me off ever going near that city again. One component of a holiday for me is being able to relax. I couldn’t relax in that city in the way I’ve relaxed in pretty much every other city I’ve visited. In this regard it couldn’t be more different to Berlin, for example. I was there for two weeks and there were parts I enjoyed. I eventually learned to be quite steely, this included having to be very brusque with the swarm of spivs. In fairness to the vast majority of Barcelona folk the scumminess does seem particularly concentrated on the main tourist drag. Others of my acquaintance have had differing experiences, many have tallied with my own, others found it wonderful. Barce regularly tops the international table of pickpocketing IIRC.
London is probably the world’s greatest city. But Europe is full of wonderful cities - Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Rome, Prague, Budapest…how to choose? By and large Europe just does cities well - better than any other continent I’ve been to, at least. Don’t worry about what people here recommend; just choose a country or region that seems interesting to you and visit a city there.
Top choice for a holiday would be Rome - but I like history and archaeology. And I’m with** LavenderBlue**, one of the great things about Rome is being able to safely drink from one of the innumerable drinking fountains - not being ripped off multiple Euros for a bottle of water did make me feel better about the place 
I like Barcelona although not the same joy for me as Rome but I have to say I’ve been there half a dozen time and never had any sense of being threatened - even on Las Ramblas.
To me London is just London in a class of its own - lived there and visited many many times but never had a holiday there. Not sure I could rank all the others I’ve visited - my impressions are too dependent on why I was there, how long I spent in the city and who it was with.
Istanbul is a jewel of a city, every vista is a memory.
I was there, but I must have missed the drinking fountain portion. I guess I was imagining someone scooping a handful of water from the big fountain where people are always throwing coins and dipping their appendages.
I’ll try to recommend some cities you won’t hear too much of:
Bordeaux (cheap, great wine and easy access to many great little small towns)
Krakow
Budapest
Liege
Corfu (Kerkyra–cheating because it’s an Island)
Well, I seem to be alone, but if I had to choose a European city to actually live in (and if I could afford it) I would choose Zurich. Why? Because it works! It also has its beauties. The first thing I would do would be to go the Zurichhorn and see if the Tinguely is still running. The first time I came on it in 1967, I was stunned. It was still running twice a day in 1998, the last time I was there. I love the tram system and the boats along the See and just walking down Bahnhofstrasse to Paradeplatz to get some truffles at Lindt-Sprungli. It helps that I have lived there for nearly two years in all.
However, I have to admit that Paris is an absolute stunner. For a vacation, I would choose Paris. Its inefficiencies wouldn’t have time to get on my nerves. For some reason, I never much liked London. Too big for one thing. I’ll take NY over London any day.
To rank the three (post visit):
- Istanbul
- Rome
… - Athens
No, we didn’t go to 17 different cities, it’s just that Athens was much ado about nothing. Istanbul was awesome and Rome was great (but expensive - $6 for a can of Coca-Cola?)
Zurich. My husband is from near-there, so we have lots and lots of family in the area. The city is totally pedestrian friendly, and there is lots to see and do. It’s clean and friendly, right on a river. It’s often voted the best place to live in the world, so what is not to love?
Bergen and/or Stavanger, Norway. So incredibly different than anywhere else I’ve ever been, easy to get around, lots of gorgeous scenery.
I love http://www.mapcrunch.com for trying out countries. I spend far too long just “driving” around Norway. When I get homesick, I do the same in Australia, and see how many times it randomly drops me somewhere I’ve been before, and then how long it takes me to “drive” home…
Istanbul. It’s like New York City meets the 1001 Nights.
(Honorable mentions to Paris, London, Talinn, and Vienna).
Once more for Maastricht;the fact I might have move someday makes me all kinds of sad.
Here’s some love for İstanbul. It’s one of the great cities of the world, bursting at the seams with history and culture, they make excellent bread (Turkish bread is similar to Italian, only way better), and most of all it’s in the most gorgeous scenic setting you ever did see, on the Bosphorus and Golden Horn. I loved my visit there. The place has a strong presence to it. Like any great ancient city that’s survived to the present, it has an air of slight decay which only makes it more elegant and endears it to the visitor. And they have a whole marketplace for nothing but books! How utterly cool is that?
That was my answer, but not really for the skiing. I just felt really at home there.
I second Venice. I don’t normally like to go somewhere twice (been there, done that, got the t-shirt, go somewhere new) but I can’t wait to go back to Venice and actually spend a while there. I felt safe and comfortable and content.
I also really liked Lucca, Italy - the inner old city. The wall is huge enough for a park and cycling/jogging paths and the architecture inside is beautiful.