What makes a romantic city?
Check out any top 10 romantic cities list and you'll see cities like Paris, Rome, Prague, and Venice. But what makes these cities so romantic? (Hint: It's not because the streets are lined with boxes of chocolate.)
Kaid Benfield, on NRDC's Switchboard blog, came up with a list of what these romantic cities have in common:
- Strong sense of place anchored by historic preservation
- Lively, walkable, diverse downtowns
- Compact development patterns
- Extensive and well-used public transportation
- Great public spaces for lively human interaction
- Parks and quiet places mixed in with urbanity
- Great traditional neighborhoods with a strong sense of community
- Welcoming to people of diverse culture
It's a good list. Who dreams of getting stuck in traffic in a busy city on a date? It's hard to show your special someone how much you love them when you have road rage. Walking hand-in-hand through downtown sounds better to me. Benfield agrees. "People fall in love with these cities, and in them, in part because they are so conducive to nourishing the human spirit."
The characteristics of these cities aren't just great for lovers, they increase human interaction, so they're great for singles as well. How many times have you met someone in a car?
This Valentine's Day, try visiting the neighborhood in your city that has the most in common with this list. Let us know tomorrow whether you felt the love.
Photo: kikasso/Flickr
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com