Llangollen, United Kingdom

LLANGOLLEN is the embodiment of a Welsh town in both setting and character, clasped tightly in the narrow Dee Valley between the shoulders of the Berwyn and Eglwyseg mountains. Along the valley's floor, the waters of the River Dee run down to the town, licking the angled buttresses of the weighty Gothic bridge, which has spanned the river since the fourteenth century. On its south bank, half a dozen streets form the core of the scattered settlement flung out across the low hills. Every July, the town comes alive for the International Music Eisteddfod.