Europe's Most Famous Streets?

Old Jul 24th, 2017, 10:04 AM
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Europe's Most Famous Streets?

A thread on Paris' Champs Elysees the last few days got me to wondering what other streets in Europe are 'must sights' in and of themselves. (On the Champs thread many thought it rather blah and could be skipped but that it had to be seen beause it was the famous Champs Elysees - no doubt to me Europe's most famed street.)

So I got to thinking, which I do once in a while, about what other European streets or avenues or boulevards are also in and of themselves must sights in their cities.

I came up with:

Barcelona - The Ramblas
Berlin - Unter den Linden
Zurich - Bahnhofstrasse
London - Oxford Street and for oldsters Carnaby Street -for some Abbey Road.
Edinburgh-Princess St

And that's about all I could come up with - any sights you consider to be 'must sights'?
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 10:12 AM
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Well if you watched the TdF on TV yesterday, it did indeed look like it deserved that title. Just beautiful (with no cars on it!)
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 10:31 AM
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The Ramblas is now tacky tourist central. Delete that. Maybe replace it with the Passeig de Gracia.

Oxford Street is just shops and wall-to-wall shoppers. Delete that. Maybe replace it with the Mall, but London is more about parks and squares.

The Unter den Linden was mostly torn up when I was in Berlin, maybe it's better now.

How about:

The Grand Canal, Venice.

The Graben, Vienna.

Andrassy Ut., Budapest

But, as with London, I can think of more beautiful squares than streets.
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 10:32 AM
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Yes indeed - but not sure why it is, IMO, Europe's most famous street by a country mile or country 2kms!
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 10:35 AM
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The Grand Canal, Venice.>

Yeh should have thought that was a street -in Venice it is and even more famous than the Champs!
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 10:54 AM
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Boy, things must be slow in Michigan !

For London, I'd say Regent St. and Picadilly.
For Madrid, Gran Via, Paseo del Prado.
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 01:13 PM
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Regent Street is nearly as bad as Oxford Street. Don't think much of Piccadilly, either.
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 01:39 PM
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I'm not thinking of whether a street is really neat or not just that streets that are Uber famous- for whatever reason.

does Regent St have the fame for many that Oxford St does. I guess that The Mall does.

Like Ramblas is famous if not living up to its reputation today perhaps.
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 01:55 PM
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Streets go in and out of fashion, and very few remain of tourist interest once the glamour wears off. Only "the RIng" in Vienna strikes me as having intrinsic importance, a kind of "must see" for visitors serious about understanding Vienna, and also the "Etoile" of Paris where the 5 boulevards intersect by design. The via Appia of Rome must be the most famous street in Europe that very few tourists actually go look at -- because it has become all the tourist rage to "wander" in little alleyways in Europe, and especially to eschew the long straight grand "modern" streets that Europe was once so proud to showcase, with trams & electric lights and department stores.

But Carnaby St, the via Veneto, Rue de Rivoli, the Portobello Road -- you date yourself if you even recognize the names or know why they were once destinations. Via Montenapoleone is having its day, but in 10 years people will look down on you if you mention it's on your sightseeing agenda for Milan.
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 01:58 PM
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, Rue de Rivoli,

a k a Rue de Ravioli!

Yes Appian Way is as famous as Champs-Elysees.
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 02:23 PM
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I think squares should be permitted.

Since Europe was not made in checkerboard pattern (please, no need to mention Eixample), squares are often more important or prominent than streets. Especially the main or oldest square in town.

Brussels - Grand Place
Vienna - Stephansplatz
Prague - Wenceslas Square (almost more a wide street than a typical square)
Athens - Syntagma Square

Other streets:

Copenhagen - Stroget
Milan - Corso Vittorio Emanuele II
Dublin - O'Connell Street
Cannes - Croisette
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 02:26 PM
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Via Veneto

Constitution ave in Washington, DC

Broadway

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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 02:29 PM
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OOPS,

2 and 3 are in the US
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 02:51 PM
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And how could I forget:

Via dell' Amore (Lovers’ lane)

Cinque Terre
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 02:54 PM
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I thought about squares and things like the Spanish Steps but thought there were so so many famous squares that are must sights.

And the criteria again is not how comely a street looks but how famous it is so that it, rightly or wrongly, is a must sight in that place.
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 03:08 PM
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When I used to travel to London from Scotland, my standard "morning" walking route was over the river from County Hall, past Big Ben to Parliament Square, then up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square. I'd nominate Whitehall for London. It's got it all - Parliament, Horseguards, the Cenotaph, Downing Street, War Offices, and then Trafalgar Square. You know where you are and no doubt about it.

BTW it's "Princes" Street in Edinburgh, not "Princess."
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 03:31 PM
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There are so many streets in Italy named "Corso Vittorio Emanuele II" that if you do a google search, you are unlikely to be directed to Milan. Google first offered me the one in Godisco (a suburb outside of Pavia). Most people would probably know the one in Rome better. There is one in Torino, one in Bari, another in Cuneo, Cagliari, Campobasso -- the list is endless.

However, the famed Galleria of Milan is named after Vittorio Emanuele II. But most people just call it "the Galleria".
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Old Jul 24th, 2017, 09:39 PM
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I agree halfway, massimop.

I guess most visitors from the US may think of Rome's Corso Vittorio Emanuele II first. But if you asked my female friends they would always say Milan first. Americans may not even visit Milan on their tour of Italy but rather stick to Rome, Venice, Florence and Cinque Terre - while for most Europeans Milan is a destination of its own - for fashion and shopping.

Another super famous street which is a sight in its own right:

Hamburg - Reeperbahn
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Old Jul 25th, 2017, 05:33 AM
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Ah yeh Reeperbahn - was going to say that in OP - the first place I headed In Hamburg when a young traveler (only to be a voyeur).
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Old Jul 25th, 2017, 06:14 AM
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I'm not sure there's any street that is as famous and evocative to a non-European as the Champs Elysees. Maybe Oxford Street, but all the others cited probably not. In most of other cities, tourists think about individual sites and monuments, but not necessarily whole streets.
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