Rome

[1 April 2010]

If I had one of those jobs, like Anthony Bourdain, where I travelled the world, on someone else's dime, I think my first stop would be Rome. I won't say I expect it to be my favorite city. Rather, I believe it would be necessary to visit Rome to have the necessary intellectual and emotional calibration to judge all other cities.

But how will the city do in this age of the Great Leveling, when youth and social media and real-time and smartphones are transforming the world's economy? Some commenters seem to think I am biased towards Asia in my rankings. Not so. It's just that core to success in this new world is a preponderance of youth and social media and smartphone usage -- for these are the new tools of commerce, content and creation.

On to the scoring...