Which is you favorite country and city?

[Grands]

Hi guys.
I hope that a lots of people will participate in this thread.
I'm asking in general which is your favorite country and city to visit?
Or which country do you want to visit or to live in?

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I would consider living in New Zealand for several years.

 

[Charles Link]

I have been to a number of places including to Colorado=the Denver, Colorado area in the United State. The Denver area would certainly be a neat place to live. One thing to remember is where you wind up living is simply geography. You can make almost any place feel like home if you put your mind to it. Right now, for me, that happens to be Chicago, Illinois.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I have been to a number of places including to Colorado=the Denver, Colorado area in the United State. The Denver area would certainly be a neat place to live.

I agree with Denver. Really nice, but can get expensive.

 

[ISamson]

I love Italy.

 

[Mark44]

My wife and I have been on five walking tours in Europe in the past 8 years. I think that the place I personally enjoyed the most was Slovenia. It's a small country of only about 2,000,000 people. I was there in 1974 when it was still part of Yugoslavia. I took Russian in high school and college, so with a few months of study working on vocabulary, I was able to communicate reasonably well, at a very basic level.

We were in the northwest part of the country, in the area around Triglau National Park. The mountain scenery is beautiful (the mountains are the eastern-most part of the Alps), the people are friendly, and the beer (pivo) is excellent. Aside from the scenery, there's a lot of historical places to explore, from Napoleon coming through in the early 19th century, and being the site of a major front (the Socha Front) in WW I. Ernest Hemingway worked as an ambulance driver during WW I, and based one of his novels, "A Farewell to Arms," on his experiences.

Besides Slovenia, we've done walking tours in Tuscany, Croatia, Brittany, and most recently, the district near Salzburg in Austria.

In case "walking tour" is an unfamiliar term for you, we have booked our tour with a company that takes care of the itinerary -- booking hotels and meals, and providing local transport, maps and route directions. We basically walk from our hotel in one town to the one in the destination town, usually from 8 to 12 miles in a day, with a rest day in between (that we usually use for an out-and-back loop).

Having said all that, I'm pretty happy right where I am, in the Pacific Northwest. Just up the road a few miles are the peaks of the Cascade Range, and within a couple hours is Olympic National Park. I try to get in at least one multiday backpacking trip in the Olympics each year, usually four or five days, covering 40 to 55 miles, but on one of the trips we were out ten days. Besides the longer trips, I like to get in a bunch of overnighters and day trips.

Here's a picture from a trip at the end of September, taken from our camping spot. We're about two miles away from Mt. Baker, the northern-most volcano in the Washington Cascade Range.

 

[donpacino]

Ottawa Canada in the summer

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Ottawa Canada in the summer

Yes, very underrated!

 

[donpacino]

Montreal is a very close second, but emphasis on the "in the summer."

 

[Grands]

My wife and I have been on five walking tours in Europe in the past 8 years. I think that the place I personally enjoyed the most was Slovenia. It's a small country of only about 2,000,000 people. I was there in 1974 when it was still part of Yugoslavia. I took Russian in high school and college, so with a few months of study working on vocabulary, I was able to communicate reasonably well, at a very basic level.

We were in the northwest part of the country, in the area around Triglau National Park. The mountain scenery is beautiful (the mountains are the eastern-most part of the Alps), the people are friendly, and the beer (pivo) is excellent. Aside from the scenery, there's a lot of historical places to explore, from Napoleon coming through in the early 19th century, and being the site of a major front (the Socha Front) in WW I. Ernest Hemingway worked as an ambulance driver during WW I, and based one of his novels, "A Farewell to Arms," on his experiences.

Besides Slovenia, we've done walking tours in Tuscany, Croatia, Brittany, and most recently, the district near Salzburg in Austria.

In case "walking tour" is an unfamiliar term for you, we have booked our tour with a company that takes care of the itinerary -- booking hotels and meals, and providing local transport, maps and route directions. We basically walk from our hotel in one town to the one in the destination town, usually from 8 to 12 miles in a day, with a rest day in between (that we usually use for an out-and-back loop).

Having said all that, I'm pretty happy right where I am, in the Pacific Northwest. Just up the road a few miles are the peaks of the Cascade Range, and within a couple hours is Olympic National Park. I try to get in at least one multiday backpacking trip in the Olympics each year, usually four or five days, covering 40 to 55 miles, but on one of the trips we were out ten days. Besides the longer trips, I like to get in a bunch of overnighters and day trips.

Here's a picture from a trip at the end of September, taken from our camping spot. We're about two miles away from Mt. Baker, the northern-most volcano in the Washington Cascade Range.
View attachment 215355

I was in Slovenia many times, it's close to me, as you can image.

What do you think about Tuscany?

 

[Mark44]

What do you think about Tuscany?

We enjoyed our trip to Tuscany, but it was very hot at the time, so my wife was unable to come with me a couple of days while going from town to town. One of the prettiest sights was looking at the towers of San Gimignano across a field of sunflowers. The least appealing place was called "Il Piano" (the plain). This area was mixed agriculture and warehouses, with not much growing in the fields, and was very hot, about 95 deg. F (about 35 deg. C).

 

[George Jones]

I have lived and worked in (for at least 10 months):

Windsor, Ontario;
Toronto, Ontario,
Sherbrooke, Quebec;
St. Croix, US Virgin Islands;
Morgantown, West Virginia;
Brandon, Manitoba;
Saint John, New Brunswick;
Prince George, British Columbia.

Favourite place where I have lived: Saint John, New Brunswick.

Ottawa Canada in the summer

But in the winter, you get to skate on the Rideau Canal!

 

[Grands]

We enjoyed our trip to Tuscany, but it was very hot at the time, so my wife was unable to come with me a couple of days while going from town to town. One of the prettiest sights was looking at the towers of San Gimignano across a field of sunflowers. The least appealing place was called "Il Piano" (the plain). This area was mixed agriculture and warehouses, with not much growing in the fields, and was very hot, about 95 deg. F (about 35 deg. C).

What about the food?

 

[Mark44]

What about the food?

The food was excellent. One of the meals I enjoyed the most in Tuscany was in Volterra, at our hotel. It was penne pasta putanesca. It wasn't even the main course, but it was really good.

 

[Tosh5457]

I'd like to visit Russia. My favorite trip was to Indonesia, just because it was quite different to what I'm used to see in European countries :)

 

[Evo]

For food, Palermo, Italy. Best pastries EVER. Best carbonara EVER. Best artichoke thingy EVER.

Worst pizza, Palermo Italy, it seems they made mine out of quick set cement when they heard I was American. Even my fiance after pounding on it for a couple of minutes was finally able to shatter the crust and pieces went flying across the restaurant. We did not eat it. What shards we could find. We were the only people in the restaurant. No wonder. His pizza was fine, he was Sicilian and spoke Palermitan. I'm surprised they tried this considering who he was. We left without paying. They didn't say a word.

 

[Grands]

The food was excellent. One of the meals I enjoyed the most in Tuscany was in Volterra, at our hotel. It was penne pasta putanesca. It wasn't even the main course, but it was really good.

Puttanesca*

 

[Grands]

Worst pizza, Palermo Italy, it seems they made mine out of quick set cement when they heard I was American. Even my fiance after pounding on it for a couple of minutes was finally able to shatter the crust and pieces went flying across the restaurant. We did not eat it. What shards we could find. We were the only people in the restaurant. No wonder. His pizza was fine, he was Sicilian and spoke Palermitan. I'm surprised they tried this considering who he was. We left without paying. They didn't say a word.

In Italy there is a war between regions for the way to prepare pizza, if you go in 4 different regions you will find 4 different pizza, because the true is that behind the pizza there is no secret, there isn't a standard recipe, so everyone make it in a different way.
In Naples you will find a pizza with a high pizza, in Tuscany a very very thin pizza, also in Rome, in Milan is something in between etc...
I don't know how is pizza in American, I tried once pizzahut ( outside Italy, cause in Italy we don't have this fast food) and I didn't like it.
There is also the pizza with the ananas, that most of the italians hate, you can check here .

Even if pizza was born in Italy, many folks that visit this country believe that pizza is good everywhere, but it's not true, it's very hard to make the traditional pizza and very few people know how to prepare it.
You need a certain type of over, at a temperature of 430 celsius degrees, and have to contain stones of Vesuvius vulcan, not many people have this kind of over, because it's very expensive as you can image.

 

[Mark44]

Puttanesca*

I wasn't sure that I had spelled it correctly. In Spanish, the first part is "puta" with one 't'. In French, the word is "putain".

 

[WWGD]

I have lived and worked in (for at least 10 months):But in the winter, you get to skate on the Rideau Canal!

And to see your breath frozen, as in cartoon bubbles...almost.

 

[WWGD]

In Italy there is a war between regions for the way to prepare pizza, if you go in 4 different regions you will find 4 different pizza, because the true is that behind the pizza there is no secret, there isn't a standard recipe, so everyone make it in a different way.
In Naples you will find a pizza with a high pizza, in Tuscany a very very thin pizza, also in Rome, in Milan is something in between etc...
I don't know how is pizza in American, I tried once pizzahut ( outside Italy, cause in Italy we don't have this fast food) and I didn't like it.
There is also the pizza with the ananas, that most of the italians hate, you can check here .

Even if pizza was born in Italy, many folks that visit this country believe that pizza is good everywhere, but it's not true, it's very hard to make the traditional pizza and very few people know how to prepare it.
You need a certain type of over, at a temperature of 430 celsius degrees, and have to contain stones of Vesuvius vulcan, not many people have this kind of over, because it's very expensive as you can image.

Wonder what you would think of microwavable Pizza; not actually so bad, IMHO, though I am far from being a gourmet , for money reasons among others.

 

[Grands]

We have that, the main problem of the video is the fact that in Naples people use the eat only pizza margarita or marinata, they don't like to put extra things on it, so for them pieces of ananas on pizza is a joke.

 

[WWGD]

We have that, the main problem of the video is the fact that in Naples people use the eat only pizza margarita or marinata, they don't like to put extra things on it, so for them pieces of ananas on pizza is a joke.

I think the Ananas, aka pineapple is mostly a Hawaiian thing.

 

[Grands]

I think the Ananas, aka pineapple is mostly a Hawaiian thing.

Really?
It's not from US?

 

[WWGD]

Really?
It's not from US?

Not from the mainland part ; not so popular there that I am aware of.

 

[Mark44]

Not from the mainland part ; not so popular there that I am aware of.

As far as I know, pineapples don't grow anywhere on the mainland. Even so, my guess is that pineapple on pizza is very popular, since all the pizza chains I'm familiar with have an option with Canadian ham and pineapple.