Thousands of people strolling along the Mississippi River licking their sauce-stained fingers and washing it down with cooler-chilled beers.

FORBES: Not Your Backyard BBQ

Strolling along Blackpool's seafront, a high tide lashing up the steps and huge seagulls hovering above on the look-out for discarded chips, you will encounter a few foreign tourists, but they are a small minority.

BBC: Blackpool: Why isn't it marketed to foreign tourists?

Strolling along the narrow street, you may glimpse a chandelier maker tinkering with a frozen crystal fountain, a cobbler fetching moulds from a shelf, or a bookbinder buried in rows of bookshelves, his head bowed as he works at his desk.

BBC: Florence��s fading artisan culture