Tourist tax for Manchester?

Have a wander over to the Marble Arch pub.

 

As far as I'm concerned Manchester is just a big city and hence has all the facilities of a big city like Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham. Its not a picturesque place like York or Bath and I prefer Newcastle or Liverpool for a night out. I'm surprised it's the third most visited city when there are places like London, Bath, York,Edinburgh to see.

 

Unfortunately As lord Melchett said...." I can poo-poo your poo poo" Using Naples was a bad example as it is a World Heritage Site (for several good reasons) whilst Manchester is not.

Whist there are many parts of Naples that are industrial dumps ( a large abandoned rusting and rotting Factory complex in one zone that no-one seems interested in clearing) there are some amazing places in Naples that 'foreign' tourists don't know about and rarely, if ever, get to visit..

Google...'Parco Archeologico Pausilypon' (amazing place)-the long tunnel linking it is high enough to allow a rider on horseback to pass through . also check out the the Borbon Tunnel and Underground Napoli . Also better known places like The Opera house theatre (check out the Gran Caffe Gambrinus overlooking the theatre. The Ceiling and decor is impossble to describe although if you decide not to take your espresso standing at the bar like regular Italian which will only cost a littel over 1 euro you will pay a premium price to be seated whilst drinking it.
Then there is Herculaneum (much more compact than Pompeii but equally impressive). We went with a local cultural group (50 jabbering Italians on a coach for five and a half hours each way!!!) and stayed over 2 nights . It was the week before Christmas but the weather was unusually warm and sunny and we spent most of the days in T-shirts. It was also absolute bedlam and the Via San Gregorio Armeno (known as 'Christmas Street'- a very narrow street lined with the Presepi workshops and shops are open all year round not just at Christmas was particularly crowded. In fact best avoided just before Christmas as it was on the point of being dangerous when we experienced it.

Obviously parts of Naples are tourist traps and some others parts are ' dumps' though the sheer chaos and anarchy of some parts of the town centre are entertaining. We saw a child about ten years old sat on his father's lap navigating the chaos that was the traffic driving past us, presumably his father working the pedals whilst the boy steered and sounding the obligatory horn continuously whilst stationery. Southern Italy is still Wild West country in many ways and Naples, like Sicily, is a typical example of somewhere that is anarchic.

 

Me and Laura love Manchester. There's something for everybody there. Biggest Primark I've ever been in (Laura used to work at Primark. We have to visit for her to compare them). Some great pubs too.

If you want cheap and cheerful. Doncaster is a good night and the Frenchgate is just outside the railway station.

George was conceived in the Premier Inn overlooking the Minster.

 

Leeds is to Manchester what Wakefield is to Leeds. The fact is most people in the world have heard of Manchester thanks to its footy and music. A lot of people look at you blank when you mention Leeds.

 

Rome is a reyt dump wouldn’t go back if you paid me.

 

LoL!! Which part of Rome did you not like? The Colosseum, Vatican City, The Forum, Palatine Hill Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon the many museums and Etruscan Byzantine Roman buildings , not to mention the many bars, restaurants pizzerias and outlet selling street food reasonable prices (especially as it is one of the major cities in the World). I think you are probably in a tiny minority of visitors with that opinion.
Everyone is entitled to their own view but c'mon.... calling Rome a 'dump' is a bit daft.