I live in a medium-sized city, we're around 900k, and I like it, it's not overly big and chaotic like Milan or Rome, but neither is it a small town where there's nothing and everyone knows each other...I like it because it offers a good compromise between amount of services and entertainment, but without the excessive crowding and piling up of people.
The best things are undoubtedly the festivals and fairs, in the spring and fall there are literally all the time on every weekend; once the strawberry festival, then asparagus, then fried dumplings, goose, etc... an endless list; then there are the festivals, each town has its own saint and when the day comes to celebrate him there come merry-go-rounds, stalls and good food, even cheap food.
Even as a geographical location it is good, there are hills and within an hour's drive you can find either the sea or the mountains to suit your taste; you are also close to Venice, a city of great charm but also Verona with its lake. Another nice thing is that if you live a little bit in the suburbs you have a lot of greenery, there are always green spaces, playgrounds and farm fields; perfect for people who like fresh air.
Contact with the local area is another nice aspect, here the baker knows you, if you're short of money he says “bring it next time,” he's not afraid you'll disappear and never come back; you have a chat at the fish market and with the butcher down the street, you go to the farm to buy produce grown by them; you build relationships, all the things that are not taken for granted in bigger cities.
The things I don't like... well the worst thing of all, which other people also can't stand, a problem that has been carried for 40 years and no one has ever solved: the damn traffic!
There are few roads leading from the suburbs to the center, and so in the morning when you go to work or in the evening when you go home it is delirium. You wake up in the morning preparing yourself for war, knowing that at the stop sign you'll have to jump before someone has time to go ahead and occupy that half-meter that's cleared, hoping that the smart guy overtaking on the wrong side invading the other lane doesn't catch your mirror...it literally takes 20 minutes to go 1 km! When it rains then you already know it's the end, you'll never get to work on time.
The other thing that has gotten much worse in recent years is security; accomplice uncontrolled illegal immigration in the center is full of drug dealers, petty thefts are daily things...some neighborhoods are best avoided precisely to avoid problems...recently a red zone was established with intensified controls precisely because of these problems; in the evening then directly you don't leave the house. Fortunately in the suburbs, where I live, the situation is much better
Photos taken today going and at a local fair
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