(by Gina Di Meo) Mecca for foodies in the United States but also the place to fall in love like in a romantic film.
It is Seattle, the city in the state of Washington, also renamed 'Emerald City' for the lush greenery that surrounds it, which among its many faces can boast of being one of Hollywood's favorite locations for presenting the most beautiful love tales of the big screen .
The capital of coffee or even the home of Starbucks is like a canvas on which the plots of cult films took shape.
The whole history of 'grunge', a musical genre born in the 1980s in Seattle, is in the 1992 film 'Singles - love is a game', directed by Cameron Crowe.
What would the love story of Sam and Annie, or rather Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, in 'Sleepless in Seattle, 1993' be, without the floating houses of Lake Union in the background, which can be explored with a tour on board Argosy Cruises , or all the liveliness of the Pike Place market? A little further north, in Port Townsend, is Fort Worden, the former military base that was the set for the legendary film 'An Officer and a Gentleman' (1982), with Richard Gere and Debra Winger.
Between one stop and another, discovering the locations of the films, the city fascinates with its monuments and tempts you with its extraordinary variety of cuisines.
The main cultural and recreational attractions are also within your pocket's reach with CityPASS packages.
Among these is the Chihuly Garden and Glass, the museum which houses some of the works of the glass sculptor Dale Chihuly.
It is one of the most beautiful glass art collections in the world, like a small capital of glass manufacturing outside the more famous Murano.
Seattle is also famous for the 'Space Needle', the tower over 184 m high built in 1962 for the Universal Exposition.
The Pearl city is like an Eiffel Tower and defines and dominates its skyline with its UFO-shaped design.
A few steps from the Space Needle there is the attraction that can be considered a Disneyland for music and the Pop universe, namely the Museum of Pop Culture, better known as MoPOP.
The building that houses it is a work of art in itself.
Born from the creativity of Frank O. Gehry, the architect who also designed the Guggenheim in Bilbao, the museum was created with an undulating cladding of thousands of panels and celebrates creativity and the continuous evolution of culture.
Here there are also exhibitions dedicated to Jimi Hendrix, Pearl Jam and Nirvana, among others.
Another must-see is the 'Sam', Seattle Art Museum, whose collection can also boast masterpieces by Italian artists such as Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.
The Seattle Aquarium is a showcase for the numerous varieties of underwater life in the Pacific Northwest.
The Monorail, a sort of light metro that travels in mid-air between the buildings and parks of the city, has earned itself the nickname of tourist attraction.
In addition to being an artisan food market, Pike Place Market is also usually the starting point for exploring Emerald City.
It is also the area where the 'Gum Wall' is located, a wall completely covered in different colored gum.
It's been dubbed the dirtiest attraction in the world, yet it's also one of the busiest in Seattle.
A few hundred meters away is the oldest active store in the Starbucks chain.
Seattle is also a city easily explored on foot.
It is delightful and enlightening to explore neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, Fremontl and even more so with stops to delight the palate in characteristic restaurants such as, 'Wild Ginger' for Southeast Asian cuisine, 'Mamnoon', for Middle Eastern cuisine, 'Alder & Ash' for the 'New American, 'Roxy's Diner', which serves breakfast all day.
'Footprint Wine Tap' is the first and only 'keg-wine-on-tap bar' in the city.
Glasses of wine are served draft beer style.
The scent of cocoa inebriates everyone who enters 'Rey Amargo', a shop that sells 100% Mexican cocoa-based products.
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