Some cities don't need neon to brighten up the landscape. From pastel
towers on the Italian coast to a crayon-colored artist colony in
Argentina, these 10 towns make color the primary focus.
Manarola, Italy (Jenifoto406 / Dreamstime.com)
Manarola, Italy
Manarola
is the oldest of the Italian towns known as the Cinque Terre—the Five
Lands along the country's northwestern coast that cling, lichen-like, to
the rugged rocks above the Ligurian Sea. All five
localities—Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso al
Mare—are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognized for its
"harmonious interaction between people and nature." UNESCO obviously
knows its color wheel: The sea's rich blues complement the
sunset-colored shops and Genovese-style tower homes of Manarola with
panache, and the buildings appear almost cultivated, like a flower
garden tucked into the craggy slopes. Particularly stunning is the vista
from the narrow rock ledge across the harbor at Punto Bonfiglio, when
the retiring sun deepens and perfects the town's palette.
Jodhpur, India (Plotnikov / Dreamstime.com)Jodhpur, India
That
wash of blue on the horizon isn't a sunny sky (though Jodhpur has
plenty of those, too—with barely a foot of rain each year). Rather, the
wave unfolding from the foot of the massive fortress Mehrangarh is a
cornflower-colored settlement, aptly termed the "Blue City." The color
may originally have had social and cultural significance, indicating the
habitations of upper-caste Brahmins (today, it is less prone to
indicating religious boundaries). Few communities are this coordinated:
Steady blues give the settlement an airy, fantastical look, like a
magical town drawn from the spiritual pages of the Hindu Bhagavad Gita.
Towering Mehrangarh completes the mythological look. Begun in 1459 and
expanded over the centuries, the fortress is now open to visitors and
provides panoramic views of the old city's heavenly patchwork.
The La Boca neighborhood in Buenos Aires (National Geographic / SuperStock) La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina
From
its humble beginnings as a slave settlement in the 16th century, Buenos
Aires's La Boca neighborhood has become one of the capital's most
culturally diverse districts—and certainly its most colorful.
Paint-by-numbers conventillo homes, built by Italian immigrants and
daubed with vibrant primaries, give the neighborhood a lively air.
Caminito Street, La Boca's most popular drag, is particularly rich in
these shared tenements—but it's also rich in oglers. Away from
Caminito's throngs, the colors might not be quite as loud, but
creativity abounds throughout the district—painters and sculptors of all
stripes have transformed the neighborhood into an artistic hub. For a
look at modern La Boca art, head for the galleries at Fundación Proa,
which also offers a library, restaurant, and rooftop terrace for a
birds-eye perspective on Buenos Aires's luminous playground.
T
he candy-colored, barn-like homes in Ittoqqortoormilt, Greenland (Arctic-Images / SuperStock)Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland
Scattered
across the bleak lunar landscape like a handful of candy drops, the
barn-like homes in Ittoqqortoormiit (pronounced it-doc-cut-door-meet)
lend a surprising touch of domesticity to one of the world's most
desolate regions. Even the interior of the circa-1928 church is as
richly colored as its façade. Perched dramatically on a fjord-laced
peninsula, the town is the entryway to Northeast Greenland National
Park, the world's most northerly and flat-out hugest national
park—topping 240 million acres, the park could accommodate more than a
hundred Yellowstones. But even without wandering into the beyond,
Ittoqqortoormiit provides a keen glance into frontier life in Greenland.
The 70 colonists who arrived in the area in 1925 speckled the rugged
coastline with houses painted in burnt ochers and royal blues. With a
winter that never ends—the sea here is frozen seven months of the
year—those warm colors aren't just pretty, they're a psychological
necessity.
San Francisco's Chinatown (Jeff Whyte / Dreamstime.com)San Francisco, California
Diverse
and unrepentantly eccentric, the City by the Bay wears its colors
proudly, from the displays of elaborately embroidered cheongsamin
Chinatown windows to the Seven Sisters, the famous lineup of
delicately-tinted Victorian homes on Alamo Square. For more freestyle
paint jobs, check out the murals at Clarion Alley, a narrow sliver
connecting Mission and Valencia Streets. A multiplicity of art styles
drawn in innumerable hues covers the walls and fences of the alleyway,
providing the (mostly) consenting community with a dynamic gallery of
homegrown creations. If that's still too restrained for your tastes,
join a million other revelers at the annual San Francisco Pride
Celebration and Parade (usually held on the last full weekend of June).
It's the biggest LGBT event in the country, and, as such, one of the
biggest tsunamis of color on the planet.
Willemstad, Curaçao (Federico Donatini / Dreamstime.com)Willemstad, Curaçao
From
a distance, Willemstad's waterfront looks positively unreal, like a
doll city plunked down into the Caribbean. The oldest section of
Curaçao's capital dates back to 1634, and the commingling of Dutch
architecture and a Caribbean palette has resulted in a riotous cityscape
rivaling the town's own Carnival for vibrancy. One island legend claims
that the painting began in earnest when a Dutch governor proscribed
white houses, believing the tropical sun's powerful glare a medical
risk. See the buildings up close and then cross the Swinging Old Lady
(the local name for the pontoon-supported, 1888 Queen Emma Bridge) for a
view from the across the river. Gouverneur de Rouville restaurant has a
terrace with the perfect vantage point (the wide selection of rums is
also a plus).
Longyearbyen, Norway (Science Faction / SuperStock)Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway
At
Longyearbyen's latitude, about the only warm things around are the
rusty reds of many of this coal-mining town's homes. The capital of the
Svalbard archipelago lies a full 12 degrees north of the Arctic
Circle—which means it's not just Nordic, it's the most Nordic of all
Nordic lands (according to its proud inhabitants, anyway). The rows of
identically constructed homes—done up in rich, Crayola oranges, blues,
and reds—stand out starkly from the snow-strewn hills and crevasses of
Longyearbyen's otherworldly surroundings. The entrances to some defunct
mines remain open to visitors, with Mine No. 2B being particularly
endorsed. "As a matter of fact," Norway's official tourism guide
blithely asserts, "this mine is where Santa Claus lives." Those rosy
homes? That's where the elves work.
Cape Town's Bo-Kaap district (Photononstop / SuperStock)Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, South Africa
Settled
by the successors of African and South Asian slaves brought by the
Dutch beginning in the 1500s, and subsequently influenced by the
migration of Islam, Cape Town's Bo-Kaap district has over time developed
into a candyland of lemon, lime, and grape-tinged houses. For more on
the neighborhood's past, head to the Bo-Kaap Museum, housed in a
historic building largely unchanged from its original 1760s form. Then
trek up Wale Street and turn off onto Chiappini Street for a
particularly striking row of Dutch and Georgian terraces, cheery aquas
and pistachio greens, and glimpses of the surrounding cloud-draped
hills.
Gdansk, Poland (Travel Library Limited / SuperStock)Gdańsk, Poland
A
millennial city that wears its age proudly, Gdańsk has a dazzling
collection of preserved structures that tower above the cobbled streets
of the Główne Miasto (Main Town). While the Baltic port has more than
its share of stoic structures (check out St. Mary's Church, which, with
its 256-foot tower, is purportedly the largest brick church on earth),
parts of the city are draped in surprisingly upbeat tones. The
sentinel-like mansions along Długa, the main pedestrian drag, form solid
walls of peach, olive, and mauve. Their combination of jovial colors
and dignified sculpture and ornamentation reflects Gdańsk's split
personality: Centuries after the height of its prosperity as a trading
hub in the 1500s, the city fell hard under the spell of collectivism.
The Solidarity movement that eventually helped topple communism in
Europe began in the city's shipyards, and today Gdańsk is still on the
ascent after its postwar dreariness.
The neighborhood of Quiapo in Manila (Hrlumanog / Dreamstime.com)Quiapo, Manila, Philippines
At
the center of the Philippine capital, the market-rich neighborhood of
Quiapo packs in a bewildering variety of cultural, culinary, and
corporeal colors that makes the rest of Manila pale in comparison. On
any given day, the rugged streets fill beyond bursting with vendors
hawking traditional gold-trimmed barong tagalog shirts, sweet sun-yellow
mangoes from the island of Guimaras, and fierysiling labuyo (birds-eye
chilis) in Christmassy reds and greens. But the real star of Quiapo's
dappled streets is the classic Philippine jeepney. Modeled after
American army jeeps, the flamboyant minibuses are ubiquitous on the
capital's crowded roadways, and each is a unique work of art. The
vehicles are painted with slogans, patterns in blaring primary colors,
and gaudier-than-life portraits of pop stars and cultural icons—think
Mother Mary riding shotgun, with Madonna bringing up the rear.
Agak2 uols, ade tak bandar yang mostly colornyer hijau he he he !
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DARI SINI !
