3. Venice
In its hey day, Venice was the capital for culture in the world. It’s also one of the loveliest cities ever built by human hands. A beautiful relic of the old world, Venice is filled with grand palaces, churches, clock towers and estates that are simply waiting to be explored. Venice is an extremely pleasant city to traverse (provided you don’t mind some close quarters), and your travel life isn’t complete until you’ve taken a slow gondola ride down one of its famous canals. Sadly, flooding is all to common in this sinking city, and Piazza San Marco is often knee-deep today. It’s only a matter of time before all its glory is underwater.
4. Bangkok
Bangkok is a city of contrasts. On the one hand, it’s got more than enough cultural attractions to keep an historian sated (the Grand Palace is a one-of-a-kind feast for the senses). On the other hand, it’s also a place to get into all kinds of dirty bad fun. All in all, though, the city is safe for the intelligent traveler and its position as a center of wealth in Thailand makes it welcoming to any tourists looking for a Pacific Rim experience. However, the canal systems that hold back the Chao Phraya River can’t always handle the flow, as evident during the devastating 2011 floods. Parts of the city were literally six feet under during that disaster, which caused $45 billion in damages.
