It is the City of…
… boots and elegant winter scarves; multiple facial piercings on twenty-somethings; the ubiquitous spaghetti marinara on plates and menus; crisp mornings with a welcome stillness in the air; café trottoirs and restaurants with outdoor gas heaters; generous servings and warm service; a vibrant city centre abuzz with an eclectic mix of people; single red rose sellers in restaurants; night-lit buildings and an eerie green glow of old trees;
… food lovers who have cast the waif-starved look with flashy flesh exposure in favour of more rotund figures; tight narrow lanes that are open to traffic; helpful locals ready with a smile and a sense of humour; decadent shopping arcades with European flair; long strips of eateries vying for business and enticing customers with free bottles of wine with dinner;
… a calm stretch of water where the sea meets the sky in a powder blue finish that locals call a beach; preservation and restoration instead of demolishing and modernisation; skinny leg jeans tucked into stylish long boots; caked-on foundations on pale skins of young pencil-like figures; patrons huddling around tiny square tables; outdoor smokers and smokers in open air dining;
… redefining the cosmopolitan label with young men in white shoes, numerous Kwik-E-Marts and a lot of Indians, authentic Italian restaurants with Lebanese owners, and foreign accents such as Italian, French, Greek, Indian and overheard alongside English; small cafés that are licensed for alcohol; perfect lattes but no white sugar; cyclists, cars, pedestrians and trams cohabiting the streets; free wifi hotspots and more…
It is the city of… Melbourne.
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