Apropos of an ad I just heard cashing in on Valentine’s Day - “Win a trip to the most romantic city in the world!” I thought that was a contentious statement, time to put it to the Dope. If you wanted to spend a good old romantic time with your nearest and dearest, which city would you pick?
The ad said that Paris was.
I have been to both. Paris beats just about any other large city in the world for romanticism so it isn’t really a fair comparison. Venice is extremely cool too but it isn’t a city as people tend to think of them. It is basically an architectural labyrinth like a giant multi-level maze surrounded by water every few hundred feet but with lots of world-class things to see along the journey. In Paris, you can walk around like you would any other city and get good food (at a steep price, if you know what you are doing) and take in museums and do walks along the river. It is huge but filled with beautiful sites.
Venice is tiny and confusing and full of tourist traps but unique. I like Venician food a lot but it is a little exotic for some. The Italian service professionals are well behind that of the French as well even if you don’t think that is possible. It is hard to get good service in Venice and things close at irregular times of the day.
Venice. I don’t like Paris, although there are individual sites that I enjoy. Paris is a big city – a big French city with a lot of interesting stuff, but a big city all the same. There are garbage, and traffic noise, and drugstores, and supermarkets, and all the rest of the urban experience.
Venice is something else entirely. It really does feel magical, and it is completely unlike any other place you’ve been.
Paris.
Paris, a million other cities, Pigsbutt Arkansas and then Venice.
Paris. Romantic, beautiful, and I can speak French adequately.
I picked Paris. Of the two, I’ve only been to Venice, but I was underwhelmed by it.
Paris in a heartbeat for me. However, if I got to pick where to take my sweetheart on a romantic getaway, it might be Bruges.
Did the backpack through Europe thing many years ago and hated Paris. Been there twice and was miserable both times. Got robbed the last time I was there and while it makes for a good story, I have no desire to return. Venice was much better.
I love both Paris and Venice, but Paris is like walking around in a huge outdoor museum. The architecture is fantastic, the sights are top-notch, the culture is just enough of a challenge to be fun and at the same time easy enough to learn to navigate (and I speak enough bad French to get laughed at condescendingly, and then assisted, which is fine with me). Venice is absolutely beautiful, no doubt, so it’s a close race, but Paris wins.
I’d pick either Rome or London unless the romance of the event was directly proportional to the romantic feelings the woman in question had for the place, and she wanted Venice or Paris. Neither seem inherently romantic to me.
Paris. Venice stinks.
Venice. The lack of traffic and decreased noise make it much more romantic.
Venice is an open sewer.
Venice hands down.
Not that Paris isn’t a nice place, but just nice. Venice is like stepping into a fairy tale - it’s beautiful and surreal and a break from the normal world. Utterly romantic. A billion times more romantic than Paris.
Other: Rome. Most romantic place I’ve ever been. Well, other than my bedroom, of course.;)
Irkutsk.
Paris is wonderful! It’s also a proper city.
Venice is more of an amusement park than a city these days, chock full of tourist traps and Americans with cameras. It’s also a lot smaller, uglier and smellier than you think. And (in case you hadn’t noticed) it doesn’t have streets! All the main thoroughfares are canals, so the water buses is the only real option for getting around. Any attempt at actually going for a walk will see you get completely lost in a maze of back alleys and dead ends. What’s the point of having a city that you can’t walk around in? I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
YMMV, though, I guess.
I’ve been to both, and it’s Paris. Not that I have anything against Venice, but nothing beats Paris.
I love Paris, but ‘romantic’ isn’t the first word that pops to mind when I think of it. Too big, too busy.
Venice is other worldly and there’s no other reason to go than for a romantic break for two. Venice wins for me.
(Incidentally, I went to a wedding in Venice once. The marriage only lasted two years, but the wedding setting was the most romantic ever).
AHEM, getting lost in a maze of medieval alleyways is romantic!
:shakes head at Martian Bigfoot: