Trento

Trento doesn't shout. It doesn't have to. Tucked in a valley where the Alps close in on three sides, it's the city Italians themselves rank as the best place to live in the whole country, year after year. It's Italian to the core, but with the trains running on time and the streets swept clean, warmth and order somehow in the same place. The old center is all frescoed facades and arcades, watched over by the Castello del Buonconsiglio, and above the rooftops the mountains are always there, close enough to ski by afternoon. This is a place that works, and has gotten on with being lovely while nobody was looking.