What's the most underrated tourist attraction you've ever been to?
Shamelessly inspired by this post. While I was trying to remember which tourist attraction I didn't like, I could name about 100 I didn't think much of beforehand but amazed me when I finally got to see them. So here I ask you the opposite : what are the most underrated tourist attraction you've ever been to?
10 years ago by Bastou
with
2 comments
Join the Discussion
I live in St. Louis, and while everyone goes to the zoo and arch, I like Busch Gardens out in the county. You get closer to the animals, and you can see the Clydesdales they use in the beer commercials. Plus, there's a beer garden where everyone over 21 gets 2 free beers.
Also, eat on The Hill. Any local can tell you where it is.
If you come in summer, it's hard to beat the Muny (an outdoor theater) and if you want you can get free seats but getting them means coming early and doing a Braveheart impression.
I'll start. Michelangelo's David. Everyone has heard of and seen this sculpture at least in picture, and they know it in every detail. Or do they? I, for one, thought I did. I thought the real deal had nothing more to offer than its numerous, too numerous, pictures, reproductions and homages could. Boy! Was I wrong! It's amazing to see live, in a way no picture can ever give justice.
First, the proportions : this sculpture was intended to be at the top of a cathedral, but if it was build with proportional human measures, it would have looked disproportionate from tens of meters down below, with a small head and huge feet. So Michelangelo reversed that on purpose, making its head way bigger than it should be compared to its lower body. Kind of like the pools in the Versailles castle's gardens near Paris : King Louis XIV wanted to see his pools straight, but normal perspective makes them look wider at the near end, so his engineers built it wider at the far end on purpose, so they look straight when looked at from the castle's windows.
Second, and this really is the amazing part, there are two sides to Michelangelo's David, on one side, he looks like this young, innocent child, ready to be thrown in the wolf's den. On the other side, he looks aged, wise, worried and burdened with the weigh of life on his shoulders. You can't properly see this on pictures, and even with separate pictures for both sides, the action of being there and moving from one side to the other and seeing his face change before your eyes is well worth twice as much as the admission fee to the Galleria dell'Accademia, in Florence, Italy, where it is exposed.