Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyB
This is, unfortunately, true. In North America there's too strong a cultural commitment to single family dwelling in separate houses. I understand the choice, but personally, I feel the outcome is kind of sad. Density, vibrance and convenience are a natural trio.
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Every hotel I have stayed in in Italy, in Rome Naples and Venice has been one or two floors of an old apartment building, usually 4 to 8 floors high, the first floor has a small market where everyone gets what they need to make dinner when they get home, a concierge who's front room has a little hatch in the wall looking onto the hall way so he can watch TV eat dinner and still greet you, the rest of the building might have a few offices and mixed with peoples apartments, in Naples there was always a large open space in the middle that the washing was hung out on and the kids played soccer, each building was a self contained community in itself, no one does apartment and city living as well as the Italians, plants pots nailed to every ledge or roof to grow tomatoes.