# Cities of the Alps



## Raaymanx (Feb 16, 2010)

*Thun*

Thun, Switzerland, pop.: 42.330, background 










*Dornbirn*

Dornbirn, Austria, pop.: 45.789, background Bregenerwald - 2.134m










*Lecco*

Lecco, Italy, pop.: 47.791, background Bergamascian alps - 2.549m










*Luzern*

Lucerne, Switzerland, pop.: 76.702, background Schwyz alps - 2.282m


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## GENIUS LOCI (Nov 18, 2004)

hudkina said:


> I would define a city as being in the Alps if it is within a very narrow valley with mountains on either side. A lot of these are cities that just happen to be at the base of the mountains.


Yup, I agree: an Alpine city is a city surrounded by mountains within Alps massif

Cities like Torino are close to the Alps, but not Alpine cities; same with Lecco, Bergamo or Como and obviously Milan (which it is in the middle of the largest Italian plain, how can it be an Alpine city? C'mon... even if Alps are closer than what people generally think)

Aosta, Trento or Bolzano (to remain in Italy) are Alpine cities for sure


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## Raaymanx (Feb 16, 2010)

GENIUS LOCI said:


> Yup, I agree: an Alpine city is a city surrounded by mountains within Alps massif
> 
> Cities like Torino are close to the Alps, but not Alpine cities; same with *Lecco, Bergamo or Como* and obviously Milan (which it is in the middle of the largest Italian plain, how can it be an Alpine city? C'mon... even if Alps are closer than what people generally think)
> 
> Aosta, Trento or Bolzano (to remain in Italy) are Alpine cities for sure


ok, bergamo and como
but lecco? it's surrounded by mountains from at least 900m up to 2.200m

but i agree with you, about aosta, trento, bolzano and my favourite italian city; merano. not because of it's austrian history, because of the difference of the altitude between the town and the mountains


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## GENIUS LOCI (Nov 18, 2004)

Raaymanx said:


> ok, bergamo and como
> but lecco? it's surrounded by mountains from at least 900m up to 2.200m


Not more sorrounded than Como... actually both cities are at the border of the Alps (which are called _Prealpi_) North of an area called Alta Brianza, a hilly territory North of Milan.
And both Como and Lecco are in the metro area of Milano.


Here you can see Alta Brianza from a mountain near Lecco, looking South to Milan. As you can see there is even a massive urbanization: anyway not exactly an Alpine landscape


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## Bricken Ridge (Feb 16, 2008)

Does anyone have recent photos of Annecy, one of the three 2018 winter olympic candidate cities?


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## Union.SLO (Dec 24, 2007)

Two more Slovenian cities with nice alpine vistas:

*Kranj*, pop.: ~40.000


by spodjed


by Erik Meylemans









source.


*Kamnik*, pop.: ~12.000


by stroop.wafel


by ddsafer


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## zaphod (Dec 8, 2005)

Those population figures aren't very large, compared to how urban looking and internationally well known some of these cities are. Do these cities have large suburban or regional populations not being counted to their official number?


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## Raaymanx (Feb 16, 2010)

zaphod said:


> Those population figures aren't very large, compared to how urban looking and internationally well known some of these cities are. Do these cities have large suburban or regional populations not being counted to their official number?


in central europe they just count the principal residence to the population.

kranj is in the metropolitan area of ljubljana(~20km), the biggest cities are ljubljana(~270.000), kranj(~50.000), skofja loka(~22.000), domzale(~13.000) and medvode(~15.000).
there's a poulation of about 420.000 in the metropolitan area


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## nobody (Aug 29, 2004)




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## gabrielbabb (Aug 11, 2006)

The landscapes look very similar to latin american cities like Santiago, Mexico City, La Paz, Bogotá or Caracas with small population and more snow... very beautiful


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## dreaad (Nov 22, 2004)

^^ great picture!


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## gabo79 (Oct 31, 2008)

marvelus


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## gabo79 (Oct 31, 2008)

Nice citys.


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