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I will lead on a journey through slow food and rapid development, just right in Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix is a city of uniqueness of the horizon and desert light. This optimistic attitude, accompanied with the arid climate and low cost of living has brought many people to the Valley of the Sun.

The Phoenix metropolitan area is one of the fastest- growing areas in the United States. It’s a pity because the car is king there – driving is only way to move around in 9, 200 square miles region. In this world it’s hard to state the foot and the bicycle as much as the car.

Phoenix is a lesson in freeway nomenclature. The endless pavement and strip malls remind of a distant Los Angles. But there’s a beautiful iridescent horizon and a new light – rail system will soon take place and run.

But behind all these statements comes the good. There’s a quality cuisine, a thriving art scene and unique modern architecture. The creative landscape has three museum institutions. They have the Phoenix Art Museum, a wonderful new second edition, and the other museum SMoCA, which was transformed from a five-plex AMC theater to 20,000 square feet of gallery space. And you have the Nelson Fine Art Center that combines the hispanic character with rich collections of Arizona State University.

The city is a totally electric mix. There is Temple’s musical heritage with the Gin Blossoms. The arts are there. There’s also a place called Red Modern Furniture, which is a little tapas. The city also got Passage, a wonderful boutique that is just blowing everybody away. It’s the coolest fashion spot with a spectacular environment and stylish items. It’s amazing and it’s affordable, accessible and cool.

If you happen to be there on the summer hiking the loop trail around Piestawa Peak or the trail up Camelback Mountain. It’s a great way to see the prespective of the city. As well as biking on the canal system is another perfect way to glimpse a diversity of neighborhoods and history of the city. And at the end for gourmets audience – whenever you’re going to eat in Phoenix or just have a snack, a cocktail, it’s a fantastic experience.

Duisberg is a lovely German town, located on about 36 miles from Dusseldorf. Duisburg isn’t so famous, even in Europe. For those who have heard of it, it’s synonymous with the Ruhrgebiet—the former industrial heartland of Germany, now mainly remembered for the hard times of the 1980s, under the weight of ecological degradation, economic crisis, and soaring unemployment.

Today the city is known for its steel industry. There is still one coal mine in operation, but Duisburg has never been a coal-mining center to the same extent as other places in the Ruhr.

To give it a new role in the life of the city, there new inner water channels  were cut, which literally carry the water further into town, and a variety of public space was created on the waterfront. Duisburg Inner Harbor has retained between 30 and 40 percent of its old warehouses and mills, refurbished into offices, museums, and restaurants.

The whole idea was to bring the water back into Duisburg and nowadays this is reality. Lining the harbor are walkways, bike paths, lush green spaces, sculptures, a skateboard park, and cafe terraces. But the new paths are a mosaic of salvaged bricks and tiles, and while many old buildings were demolished to create these well-used public spaces, the Garden of Memories, for example, poignantly preserves certain segments of them.

The beautifully spare Movable Footbridge invites walkers to cross it, boats can moor at Steiger Schwanentor jetty, which rises and falls with the water level and a new dam has provided a more scenic stretch of water as the backdrop for the restaurant terraces, as well as a place to swim.

Duisburg has always had a lot going for it—the mentality is different from the rest of Germany, people are more open, friendlier, always ready to try new things.

Brussels is a surreal linguistic city between the Dutch-speaking Flemish and the French-speaking Walloons, many transactions occur in neither language. But people just speak English. Its modest character made Brussels the perfect compromise for postwar rivals choosing a headquarters for the European Union and NATO, while all the diplomats and a swirl 
of immigrants from North and Central Africa give it 
an intense international, cosmopolitan flavor rare for such a small city. The picture displays the Atomiumis, built in 1956 for the World’s Fair, an homage to the future. It recently reopened after a complete renovation.

The Atomium’s interior, which includes these atomlike seating pods.

The Belgian Center for Comic Strip Art was designed by Art Nouveau master Victor Horta.

The Grand Place—Brussels’s major tourist destination—was burned down by the French in 1695, but was rebuilt within five years. Brussels has parks and forests, of course, but one place I especially like is both outside and inside. The Galeries Saint-Hubert were the first glass-covered shopping arcades in Europe. There are cafes in the galleries where you can sit outside and watch people go by, but you’re not in the rain. One modern and peaceful world …