Loved and loathed in equal measure, Los Angeles is in almost every way the antithesis of the classical European city: vast, sparse and built for the automobile, writes Elly Ward.

Washington DC’s urban grain creates a backdrop against which classical monuments shine, finds Francis Terry.

Lucca is a stage for civic life, find Patty Hopkins, who followed Sheila Hale’s ‘American Express Pocket Guide to Florence and Tuscany’ to the Tuscan city in search for a family holiday home.