Do you know any foreign city really well?

[quote]He flies off just for art exhibits like Caravaggio in Rome and Vermeer in Amsterdam.

Sounds a bit touristy.

I’m at the point that London is very familiar. I live in NYC and go to London every other year or so

The Caravaggio exhibit at the Palazzo Barberini was not touristic at all.

Yes: Milano and Antibes.

Does Toronto count?

I went to see the Bianale in Venice Italy in 2023 - was that touristy?

I feel at home in Milan. Florence, though Florence is more of a big town than a city.

Lived in Amsterdam for 6 years. Know a lot of other European cities too

R6, did you get any bi anal?

R6 if you can’t spell it, you’re a tourist.

Antwerp, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, Florence, Gay Brighton, Glasgow, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Milan, Oporto, Paris, Prague, Stockholm, Turin, Vienna. Many small cities in the UK. and Spain's six biggest cities and a great many smaller places.

I know these Eurocentric places well enough to remember where everything is and find my way easily, have seen most museums and major attractions, know some neighborhoods outside the central core, know the museum collections, remember the names of favorite bars and restaurants and shops, and well enough to offer directions to most any landmark. There are other places I know less, but here I stuck to placed I've visited at length or repeatedly in many cases.

I know Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, The Hague, Heidelberg, Hamburg, Strasbourg, Nancy and Frankfurt very well, at least well enough to want to avoid the tourist traps. I happily avoid the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre (now ruined by selfie-takers and the sheer mass of visitors), for example, in favour of a much more pleasurable wander round the Rodin museum and the bookshops and flea markets.

I know Philadelphia and New York (both foreign cities for me) pretty well, but I think I still have a lot to learn about them both.

I lived in Berlin for 8 years, about a year in Buenos Aires, spent months in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Santiago de Chile. Probably a couple cumulative months in London over 30 years, so I know certain areas well, but still have barely scratched the surface of what it has to offer. I would say I also know Porto, Dijon, Madrid, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Vancouver fairly well.

I lived in Rome for 6 months back in 1980. I never drove, so I only got around on foot and by public transportation. I got to know certain areas/routes fairly well, but it's much too large and oddly laid out to really get to know all of it. When I went back almost 40 years later, I realized I had forgotten just about everything. I couldn't even find my old apartment building and the route I walked to work every day.

Rather than tick off a lot of countries and major cities, I've always liked staying in one place longer or in repeat visits, to get a feel for the place beyond the monuments and tourist favorites.

At times I wish I had started to travel much sooner, made it a bigger priority, travelled wider. But there is some consolation in knowing a fair number of favorite places well enough to know my way around, to have some favorite things and meals to do, and to know that there is still much more to discover.

London is my jam. If I travel anywhere in Europe I always arrange a stopover in London for a few days on the way home. I have my shopping, eating and drinking lists that I tweak annually.

London and Paris

I’ve been going to both cities regularly since I was a teenager (I’m 59).

The only touristy activity I still do is go to museums but I do that in my home city of NYC.

My company has offices in both cities so I tend to combine working out of that office with socializing with colleagues and wandering around, shopping and dining solo. Pretty much the same activities I do at home.

I’m also very comfortable using the tube and metro.

Tijuana.

Bangkok, because I lived there for 3 years and had no trouble living without the tourist stuff. Berlin, because the usual tourist destinations aren't very interesting, esp. with wall long gone.

r18=Vairst Letty