Roman Bridge at night, Castel Santiago,

The first things I look for in a new city:

1. Prices (economics for me personally, and comparable to where else I have traveled).

2. Food (duh! - markets, diverse products, big pizza ovens in restaurants, restaurant decorations and menus, etc.)

3. How welcoming people are/ people's behavoirs

- at the beginning, I thought Italy won over France for sure with this, people were so smiley and laughing and loud with lots of spirit. But now after passing a week there, I find I like the French way more. The Italians can also be very loud and obnoxious - not afraid to make fun of your accent, don't really want to speak to you if you don't speak Italian, holler at you and stare at you in the streets (TOO MUCH), and the French are a little more reserved and respectful I feel...but of course I had good and bad experiences with both so it is all relative.

4. Building styles, street forms, architecture

5. MARKETS! (Italy has them every single day on the streets! But there are more flee markets than in France)

5. Languages

- I LOVE the anticipation of what language will be spoken everytime I encounter someone, or that silence of sitting there wondering what language they speak. I found that most Italians assumed I spoke English and did not wait for me to try speaking another language to them. I also stuck out like a sore thumb with my blonde hair, whereas in France more French have blonde hair like me. But still, that suspense when I even ask someone to take a picture, and not knowing if I am trying to speak to them in Italian and they are actually just English speaking tourists too, or if they know French and here I am trying to desperately communicate as clearly as I can in Italian and I could be speaking non-chelantly (no idea how to spell that) in French.

That shows the beauty of knowing other languages - and the codes you uncover!