In my childhood, if you asked me to tell the first American city, I couldn’t avoid to mention New York! That’s what Western Europe common perception is, but nothing is more wrong than this: despite it is the most famous American city, NY is also the most European of American cities. Founded as a Dutch colony, for centuries it was one of the first destinations of mass immigration from the old Europe. The structure of the old city of Nu Amsterdam is totally disappeared, except for some remanence of the “Wall”, that gave the name to Wall Street, or Broadway (bread in Dutch is brood), or even the same way to pronounce New York (they still call it Nu-York, as its original Dutch name).

Long time has flown from that period, nowadays New York is known as the city that never sleeps, where everything is possible if you want. This is the city of the opportunities, but also the place where you can hide yourself among people: you can really do whatever you want, but success is not for all. New York is indeed a place of big contrasts, also geographically: for every crowded place in Manhattan, there are many more peaceful ones in the surrounding areas. Discovering this city is not easy at all, because what you can see as guest, only staying in the center, is a different story from what you can find in the sides.