Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Instead I'm starting to wonder why I stay close in my home studying all the day, while I live relatively near to a lot of those places
Anyway, I just found something else which seems interesting.
Looking at the list of the UNESCO world heritage sites, only the natural ones of course, I've found that we have more of those sites than California (4 vs 2)
-parco della Sila, Calabria (according to the previous biome map, this area should be under the "Mediterranean biome". As you can see, there is a quite big variability within areas classified as a single biome.) : https://www.google.it/search?q=parco...ed=0CAYQ_AUoAQ
- this one probably is not valid, so that is a piece of sea, but when I went there I liked it a lot:
the "Sea Cetacean Sanctuary". It is a piece of sea in which Cetaceans are protected. It's really easy to see dolphins and little whales there https://www.google.it/search?q=santu...ed=0CAYQ_AUoAQ
- Karstic caves: we have quite a lot of those, in a lot of different places of the country.
Es: "Grotta Gigante", Trieste. According to the " Guinness Book of Records", this is the world's largest tourist cave. https://www.google.it/search?q=grott...ed=0CAYQ_AUoAQ
Those beaches are not just more beautiful than anything in Cali, they are more beautiful than beaches anywhere in the US. The Med beaches are just far more beautiful than any beaches in the US East Coast or West Coast. The US waters are no where near as clear as that. And Hawaii is a tiny, tiny part of the US, and not all of the islands are covered in beaches. Italy has far more naturally beautiful beaches than California, and far warmer.
And yes the mountains in CA like the rest of the lower 48 states are more rounded and not as steep and impressive as the Alps.
Americans have a hard time grasping the fact that the US is not the most beautiful country in the world, nor the most diverse. Vast majority of the US is just same same. Same with the climate in the vast majority of the US: cold winters and warm summers.
The OP asked me to pick one of the two and I gave an opinion.
In comparison, Italy is still more diverse and stunning. And yes, in a nutshell, California is desert to the south, a bit mountainous to the centre and forest to the north. Not sure why you're being defensive.
^^^Proof you don't know what you're talking about. The center of California is flat. Very flat, it's why we call it the Central Valley LOL. MOST of California is actually mountains. Desert makes up 25-30% of it and forest, while more common in the north are scattered throughout the state.
Just to help you and others out:
California's east is made up of the tallest (not necessarily highest, two different things) mountains in North America. The mountains to the north are the southern part of the volcanic Cascade mts. Almost the entire coast is made up of the low altitude coast ranges. San Francisco's hills are the northern most part of the Santa Cruz mts. The Transverse range cross southern CA. The Central Valley is the most fertile grassland on the continent. California has two types of desert; Mojave and the very barren Colorado. As I mentioned earlier, more species of pines are found here than in any other comparable sized region in the world. Many plants and animals are endemic.
And yes they are mostly on the border to Switzerland and France, but what does it matter.
These peaks are also generally steeper, more rugged and more glaciated than the 4000er peaks of California.
I should have added with any reasonable prominence (300m or above) otherwise you are really talking about subpeaks.
Their location matters greatly in terms of the regions diversity.
Italy has 4 peaks above 4000m with +500m prominence. The peak of Mont Blanc is actually in France, not in Italy, so including that one is a bit of a stretch. California on the other hand has 16 and they are located all over the state, not in a tiny corner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._of_California
Those beaches are not just more beautiful than anything in Cali, they are more beautiful than beaches anywhere in the US. The Med beaches are just far more beautiful than any beaches in the US East Coast or West Coast. The US waters are no where near as clear as that. And Hawaii is a tiny, tiny part of the US, and not all of the islands are covered in beaches. Italy has far more naturally beautiful beaches than California, and far warmer.
And yes the mountains in CA like the rest of the lower 48 states are more rounded and not as steep and impressive as the Alps.
Americans have a hard time grasping the fact that the US is not the most beautiful country in the world, nor the most diverse. Vast majority of the US is just same same. Same with the climate in the vast majority of the US: cold winters and warm summers.
It might seem like that if you live in the Mid-Atlantic. Name one country in the world that is more diverse. China is the second most diverse, but China and the USA are vastly more diverse than any other country.
The water in California isn't as clear, because it is very deep and the waves are bigger. The shelf off of California provides one of the most interesting marine environments on the planet. California absolutely dominates Italy in terms of animal life and plant life. Beaches in Italy are ruined by a massive amount of people and infrastructure.
Did you miss the fact that this thread is ONLY about natural scenery?
Seems like a few people have missed that.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.