what makes a favorite city

Since I just mentioned Istanbul, which was easily my favorite city in around 2006, I have a few thoughts about what makes a city qualify as a favorite.

First of all, there are some places that just have so much to offer, like Paris. A few people might not like Paris, but most love it, and for me it will remain a perennial candidate for my favorite city whenever the question comes to mind.

However, I’ve now spent approximately five months of my life in Paris, if I add up all the trips. And that means it’s somewhat domesticated now. Always great to be there, but the adrenaline rush is vanishing. Compare that with, say, Berlin, where I’ve only spent about 7 days total in my life. I don’t think I like Berlin as much as Paris in objective terms, but in some ways it’s more exciting, simply because I’m less familiar with it, and that gives it an undercurrent of infinite adventure. In Paris I have a fairly good idea of what good and bad things may or may not happen, because I’ve been there enough to see the range of possibilities. But drop me in Berlin, and the possibilities would be murkier and thus more exciting, at least for a few weeks.

Prague was my favorite city for awhile too, but by now I’ve spent maybe 4 weeks there, and there too the range of possibilities is now fairly clear, and that takes away the adrenaline rush and makes it just very interesting and very pleasant.

New York, now there’s another place where I’ve only spent about 7 days total, I’m sorry to say. So the possibilities still feel somewhat infinite, and I’m sure it’s going to be a great time there in September for precisely that reason.

But here’s what I’m driving at with this post… Venice is the one place in the world where I may never lose the adrenaline rush, and thus it might always remain among my top three favorite cities at any given time in the future. It’s so easy to get lost here, and also one’s memory doesn’t always store up every place one has seen in Venice. You can pass across the same little Venice bridge 10 or 12 times without quite realizing that it’s the same bridge, thereby further increasing the illusion of infinity.

Other cities that easily rank as favorites are good ones where I haven’t been for an especially long time, since memory can augment them and make them seem even better than they actually are. Florence is one such place for me: I haven’t been there since 1990, and that gives it a certain exotic patina, since it’s now blended with a long-gone time that can never be retrieved. Even Hamburg, where I haven’t been in just about that long either; maybe ’91.