# You want a romantic break. Which city is better - Paris or Venice?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-romantic-break-which-city-is-better-paris-or-venice/612866>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 15, 2012, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-romantic-break-which-city-is-better-paris-or-venice/612866 "2012-02-15T00:02:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-romantic-break-which-city-is-better-paris-or-venice/612866/21 "2012-02-15T10:00:10Z")

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It depends on the time of year.

While I haven’t been to Venice and have been to Paris, I know the first one is much more “my kind of city” (the only part of Paris I like is Montmartre)… but I understand “ripe” doesn’t begin to describe her aroma in hot weather. In fact, I refrained from visiting Venice when I was working nearby because it was July, heeding the advice of my Italian coworkers; my American coworkers understandably didn’t skip it and they all came back saying “beautiful but UGH the Italians were right about the smell!”

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-romantic-break-which-city-is-better-paris-or-venice/612866/22 "2012-02-15T10:47:28Z")

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Venice for me.

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**Author:** ![YoudNeverGuess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a587f6/32.png) [@YoudNeverGuess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YoudNeverGuess)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-want-a-romantic-break-which-city-is-better-paris-or-venice/612866/23 "2012-02-15T11:42:02Z")

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> [@amarinth](#):
>
> 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.

This.  
BUT go at a _quiet_ time of year e.g. Autumn or Winter. It’s cold but it’s less crowded and won’t be smelly. Do NOT eat anywhere near St Marks. Stay for a few days. Explore the whole city. Pick restaurants and hotel/ accommodation with care to avoid the overly touristy stuff. Go to a concert, take it easy, stroll all around the quiet areas.

You can go to Paris at any time of year and it’s a great city with loads to do but, like others have said, it’s a big city with all of the noise and bustle of a big city.

Venice is incredibly romantic because it is a one-off and it is compact, the pace is slow and it’s also very quiet (i.e. no traffic noise). It’s like stepping back in time. 🆒

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