The Deleted Scenes

The Deleted Scenes

Second-Place Cities

Sometimes the trajectory is more important than the final state

Addison Del Mastro's avatar
Addison Del Mastro
Jul 29, 2025
∙ Paid

My latest American Diary column over at Discourse Magazine is out, and this time it’s about something I’ve noticed in visiting lots of places: I tend to prefer places that are sort of second-place or runner-up compared to the biggest, most popular, most talked about destinations. My examples in the piece are Croatia vs. Italy (I preferred Croatia) and C…

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