Cities like These Are Made for Living a Simpler, Easier Life

The best places I've found for living a life well lived

Zagreb’s festival of lights, March 2023

I worry that many city dwellers don’t think they can live a simple life.

Basic simple living rhetoric (i.e. Instagram) tells them it’s only possible to live simply if you own a bunch of floaty dresses and churn your daily butter after tending to your chickens on your middle-of-nowhere homestead.

And whilst there can be some truth that rural living — with its bigger spaces and fewer distractions — can help you to live more intentionally, believing it’s the only way would mean simple living is out of the question for the 83% of US citizens who live in urban areas.

The truth is, city living can absolutely lend itself to living more intentionally. Especially if you choose the right city.

For a bit of fun today, I want to highlight some of the best cities I’ve traveled to that make simple living… simpler. And exactly what is it about that city that works for people looking for an easier, more interesting life.

They’re all Europe-focused because that’s what I know the best, but I’d love to hear your thoughts about cities you love to live the good life in America and beyond.

---

Logroño, Spain

Life in Logrono’s best tapas street.

In Logroño, there is a bar for every 150 residents. 1000 of them cram into this tiny, almost unknown (unless you’re on the Camino de Santiago) city in Northern Spain.

And these bars are full. The Logroñese love to go out, meet friends, and eat their way around the tiny pincho bars that line the city’s streets. My friends who live here tell me this could be as many times as 5 or 6 times a week.

For the 6 months I lived there, I had the best time. One of the main reasons for that was this joie de vivre of the people who call this city home.