TOP 10 MOST BEAUTIFUL COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD
Every country has its marvels and breathtaking landscapes, but these ten are blessed with a rare package of outstanding natural beauty and man-made wonders that enhance their territories with everything from beautiful cities to timeless villages, magnificent parks and pristine scenery. They are countries that offer a variety of sights and an abundance of inspiration from man and nature.
The offers as much beauty anywhere you turn in Italy.
1. ITALY
The world's most beautiful city, the most inspiring cultural treasures, and magnificent scenery: Nowhere else in the world will you find a bigger concentration of beauty. There's Venice, Florence and Rome with their varied architecture, the natural masterpiece that is Tuscany with its rolling hills, vineyards and snow-peaked mountains. Then there's the perfect naturalist painting that is the Amalfi Coast or Lake Maggiore and you get the sense that no country on Earth offers as much beauty anywhere you turn as Italy.
2. SPAIN
The most common image of Spain is of the dreadful overdevelopment of the Costa del Sol or the coastline of some of the Balearic Islands, but Spain is so much more than that. It's perhaps the most diverse country in the world, with everything from white Mediterranean villages to sophisticated urban centers. You won't find a city with a greater sense of individuality than Barcelona, and from the Pyrenees to Andalusia, Spain could serve as the backdrop for any kind of film, book or painting. It's also the world's most seductive country, passionate about living the good life reflected on grand plazas in even the smaller cities, in well-preserved historic centers, and in the smallest of villages perched on hilltops. To top it all off, there are some of the world's grandest, most powerful and incomparable architectural treasures, from the Alhambra to the Great Mosque of Córdoba.
3. FRANCE
P
aris exudes the most perfect atmosphere of cultural grandeur but although the capital gets all the attention, France offers so much more. Villages with abundant Old World charm are all over the country, from around the magnificent Loire Valley to verdant Provence. Then there's the glamorous Riviera and if you want to see the world's greatest palace (Versailles) and museum (the Louvre), here they are. But France is also a country of world-class living in outdoor cafés, in perfectly-preserved towns and wine-producing regions such as Bordeaux and Champagne. If that's not enough, see the majesty of Mont St. Michel, the numerous châteaux all over the country and the spectacular panorama of the Chamois valley.
4. AUSTRALIA
Australia is more than a country, it's a continent and still more than that. It's its world, from the Outback and the Uluru-Kata Tecta National Park with its world-renowned stone monolith to the Xanadu National Park. Its wild parks and a wide range of landscapes make Australia so extraordinary, from the Morning ton Peninsula National Park facing the open sea to the Great Barrier Reef that's one of the natural wonders of the world, to the unspoiled tropical Whitsunday Islands, but then there's Sydney and its harbour, one of the most beautiful and iconic urban areas. Australia has it all, to be admired before or after a ride down the Great Ocean Road.
5. GREECE
Mykonos beaches, and the Greek islands on the Aegean Sea in general, with their crystal-clear waters, are world-famous for a reason -- they're some of the world's most beautiful. They're the first images of the country, but then there's the majestic Mt. Olympus, extraordinary Meteor, and ancient ruins around the country. While Athens disappoints those looking for aesthetic inspiration, Greece is a country that truly satisfies all the senses, and it's understandable how the idea of so many gods originated here.
6. PORTUGAL
For the pristine natural wonders of the volcanic Azores alone, Portugal would be on this list. Then there's the "floating garden" that is Madeira, the dramatic coastline and mystical capes of the mainland, the serene plains of the Alerted region and its capital Elora, the stunningly-sited medieval villages of Marva, Monarch and Bids, the Peneda-Gerês National Park, the spectacular waves of Nature and Ericeira, the golden beaches of Algarve, and the perfect collaboration of man and nature in the magic fantasy of Sinatra and verdant Douro Valley. And it's hard to match the scenic beauty and grand riverside settings of the two largest cities, Lisbon and Porto. Everything is in a small scale but when all combined it's impressive how so much diverse beauty somehow fits in such a tiny country that seems to be a favourite of the sun.
7. the USA
It has the ugliest cities in the developed world linked by shopping mall roads of fast food joints, car lots, billboards, cheap hotels and soulless suburbs (with populations obliviously living the American nightmare), but when it comes to nature, America really is the beautiful. There are the Hawaiian islands, the epic scale of the Grand Canyon, the extraordinarily clear waters of Lake Tahoe, California's Big Sur, the wildlife in Alaska, the breathtaking scenery of Monument Valley or Yellowstone, Yosemite and the other great national parks, the forestland of the Great Smoky Mountains... The list of natural wonders seems to go on forever and then there's San Francisco to save the country on the offer of beauty in an urban setting.
8. BRAZIL
It has one of the world's most beautiful cities (Rio de Janeiro) and one of the ugliest (São Paulo) but Brazil really is blessed by nature. The Amazon is incomparable, impossible to begin to imagine its magnitude, and the horseshoe-shaped falls of Iguana regularly watched by a rainbow is one of the world's most breathtaking sights. The colonial baroque architecture of the northeast with its golden interiors mixed with singular traditions gives it one of the world's most soulful atmospheres, and if the country's other major cities weren't so bland (Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, etc.), Brazil would actually rank higher on this list.
9. SOUTH AFRICA
Cape Town is one of the world's most beautiful cities (let's just say it's number 11 on our top 10 list), and the Kruger National Park is one of the most memorable experiences on the planet for anyone who visits. South Africa offers a diversity of landscapes, from the Blade River Canyon to the d'Arenberg Mountains. With all of that, it's almost easy to forget that it's also a country full of problems with a capital city that is best avoided, but escape to the Cape and grab your camera to photograph all in between, and you'll be savouring one of the most awe-inspiring territories on the planet.
10. GERMANY3
Yes, Germany. Perhaps the world's most underrated country, Germany is a place of fairy tales and architectural jewels. They're not necessarily found in the largest cities (Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, or Cologne which are more vibrant than beautiful) but Munich has its charms and smaller cities such as Dresden, Leipzig, Potsdam, and Würzburg have been preserved or restored to fairy tale eye candy. But the real storybook Germany is found all along Bavaria's Romantic Road with its wealth of unbelievable castles, in the Alps' gorgeous lakes and mountains, in the magical land of the Rhine with its vineyards or the enchanting Black Forest. Begin to tour the country, and you'll discover a land of constant surprises, from the university city of Heidelberg to old Bremen or Bamberg, to the wonderfully preserved medieval towns of Regensburg and Gothenburg.
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