Mediterranean / European vibe? (Miami, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton: houses, restaurants, beach)

[cettacheez]

I am looking for areas in Miami that offer a more Mediterranean / European vibe. I know of Espanola Way, but is there anything else that you would recommend?

[MoItaly]

Some areas in Coral Gables and Coconut Grove, maybe

[bale002]

Originally Posted by MoItaly

Some areas in Coral Gables and Coconut Grove, maybe.

Exactly, maybe.

Coral Gables has streets named after Mediterranean toponyms and personal names, but you have to use your imagination.

Miami does not have a Mediterranean climate.

US northeastern industrialists founded the city in the early 1900s through the 1950s, with industrialization in mind, using the railway, motor vehicle, refrigeration, and air-conditioning, though some of these men, especially in the late Guilded Age period (early 1900s) did aspire to European, especially Italian, tastes, e.g. Vizcaya and a few other mansions from the period.

Coral Gables, which also features an urban core in its own right, has a few streets that run in a circle, but no real piazza to speak of. On that particular score, Boca Raton (Mizner Park) and West Palm Beach (City Place) beat the Gables. It mostly has a grid-iron layout, like virtually all cities in the US.

One can see some semi-monumental architecture here and there, and some houses in the middle range of the spectrum, but some of them are laughable failures too. More recently, on the really high end ($5M-$20M), one can find houses in Pinecrest, for example, that are true Mediterranean-style mansions - the craftsmen must be from Italy and Spain -, but also Boca Raton, Highland Beach, Delray Beach, Palm Beach, and maybe some other places in southern Florida.

Your best bet may be to check out the urban core of Coral Gables around Miracle Mile (33134).

Good Luck!

[hurricaneMan1992]

I'm not sure if a single street closed to vehicles and lined with expensive restaurants with a Spanish architectural façade qualifies as a Mediterranean/European vibe.

[WINTERFRONT]

Not really, there are "elements" that might here and there remind you of the old Mediterranean, but that's it.

[Alex =]]

Originally Posted by cettacheez

I am looking for areas in Miami that offer a more Mediterranean / European vibe. I know of Espanola Way, but is there anything else that you would recommend?

Mediterranean? greek? Italian? Spanish? Sicilian? malta? slovenia? cyprus? croatia? turks????