Most disappointing view ?
 

Having just read a thread on the best views in Italy, can I ask Fodorites what their most disappointing view has been for any reason.

For me , it would have to be the oil refinery from Venice - I vaguely knew it was there, but didn't realise it was quite so close.
Closely followed by an "Is that It !" moment for Stonehenge when I first saw it.

When I drove up the the coastal town of Benidorm, perhaps the ugliest, most over-developed hole in the world, I had the distinct desire to urinate all over it. . . not to lay claim, but to compliment what it already was. . . sh*t.

Mon Dieu, I think someone has hi-jacked delicate Claire's account, someone who I've always imagined as well, I don't know exactly, but I certainly didn't imagine this. There's just something about the phrase, "I had the distinct desire to urinate all over it" that has the distinct ring of a man.

No, sorry, fishee! That was me. I hate to be so crude, but Benidorm seriously just kills me. So, I let myself go.

Oh, how I wish we could edit!

Claire

claire, no apologies, necessary. The jarring contrast is supremely funny, and your vivid response certainly makes me wonder, "My God, what is this dark place of Benidorm?"

Benidorm is just aweful. I went there one night for a party and realized upon arrival (even though it was already late night) that there was something wrong. We clubbed all night and when we spilled out into the sunlight at around 9, I nearly passed out from the sight: hugely tall buildings that have no sensitivity whatsoever to anything. . . all promising great views while stripping the views of their greatness.

And everyone there is sunburned. Normally I like parallel universes, but that one is just too much.

Claire

I also don't like Benidorm at all !! We call it here "Madrid by the sea" with the help of drunken english and german (mostly) tourists..is not the kind of place you expect it to be, really :) But it was not dissapointing for me..I knew how it was, I had to go there to visit an aunt.
I don't get disappointed easily, I try not to have great expectations and got positively surprised most of the times. I only thought Pisa's Tower was bigger...but it looked to me tiny and a bit lost in that huge Campo dei Miracoli :)

I have not yet been able to get to the front of the mob at the Mona Lisa. My attempts to capture a photo are only results of a lot of heads and a glare on the canvas. Once there was even a young couple 'making out' at the railing, which really p*ssed me off, they weren't even LOOKING at it :)