Civic stubbornness
Siena
Not a small Florence. A hill town that still uses a medieval machine to run an argument.
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Cities by character, not geography
Siena is not a small Florence. Villefranche is not a suburb of Nice. The classification lives at Brilliant Addresses; these essays are how the Journal uses it.
The slow port
Villefranche-sur-Mer
The in-between harbour. Arrive as if the journey were the stay.
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A port that became a museum
Venice
The Regatta is the weekend it remembers the first half of that sentence.
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Two towns, one promenade
Cannes
A three-week product and a Belle Époque resort. Book the second.
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Precision on a rock
Monaco
A machine that happens to have a harbour. The opposite of Villefranche — on purpose.
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A country that split
The Maldives
After a million arrivals, name the atoll or do not name the trip.
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