more from lachen, switzerland... the long walkbridge from lachen to rapperswil over the other side of the mountain from lachen
New York is definitely the city that is most beautiful in an urban way. What I mean is other cities are beautiful because of geography or because they aren't too urban. Although the rivers add to it, the beauty of New York is the city itself. The view from 9 W 57th (the black building with white edges, center right below the park) is amazing. Santa Fe is very nice too. I can't find good pictures right now, but the coolest thing in Santa Fe is how the adobe blends into the desert hills. If you are on a hill outside of the city, sometimes it's hard to tell where the city is. This is also great because you don't notice the sprawl. The downtown area is too touristy.
Oh well, 3 beautiful islands with each its own distinctive flavour. You're right you would need 3 months (maybe also 2) to experience them as it should. Corsica and Sardinia are mostly wild nature/beautiful sea/peculiar culture (but in sardinia there's also lots of history dating thousands years b.C.), though in a different way. Interior Corsica has huge mountains, Sardinia is more highplanes apart from the Gennargentu ("the silver door" in sardinian, probably because of the winter snow). Sardinia is more than 2 times bigger (24,090 km2, pop. 1.65 million) than Corsica (8,682 km2. pop. 260,196). Corsican is an italian dialect yet Corsica is part of France (don't tell the french but Napoleone spoke italian as a child), sardinian is a distinct language (don't be scared everyone can speak italian perfectly) with 2 major dialects and each village having its own slightly different dialect, a town that speaks a catalan dialect (alghero) and an island who speaks a ligurian dialect (Carloforte). And actually the gallura subregion speaks corsican. There's no need I talk about Sicily and her beauties I guess. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sardinia/Touristic_destinations Copy the names and google them in search of infos and pictures. Sardinian beaches can be really crowded in the summer, Sardinia translates with the best vacations and sea for most italians. It's a tropical like sea in a 1 hour plane trip from Milan. But don't limit your visit (whenever it will be) to the coast, you won't know the real sardinia. You need at least a trip to Barbagia. The name comes from Cicero, who described it as a land of Barbarians because Sardinians did not shave like the Romans did. The territory was also known as latrones mastrucati, "thieves with a rough garment in wool". This a photo of what sardinians still call a "Mastruca", of course only used at folkloristic occasions nowadays. The games sardinians liked to play (now only folklore).
I' ve seen few of you mention Croatia, but I don't get it why is it always the coast that is so much emphasized. It is beautiful, but the inland has something to show also:
the public transport is on the other side of this mountain, and yes the swiss have it quite good in that area - the 40-minute train ride from zurich to lachen is absolutely breathtaking - next time, i will get out and snap more photos
Not that I think Sydney is the world's most beautiful city, but just thought i'd chip in with some photos proving parts of my hometown can hold it with the best: ^The Blue Mountains-just outside Sydney's western limits Of the other places i've been to...I dunno, parts of Paris are beautiful. But the suburbs... Anyone have an opinion on Tokyo, out of interest? I sort of found it ugly but at the same time beautiful in its own (very unique) way.
My vote goes to Florence. Sorry. i am not into modern city. I cannot vote on any North American or Australian cities.
Ladies and gentlemen, here comes The Queen Of Cities THE MAGNIFICIENT ISTANBUL Some stunning photos from Bosphorus.