Our Editors React to Their Art Doppelgängers

While I only was able to spend a of couple days in the city, it left a pretty good impression on me. The people were friendly, the food was delicious, and it was a good balance of historical and modern culture in the form of art, design, fashion and music. The heart of this maritime city is spread out over multiple islands and shorelines, so it doesn’t feel as claustrophobic as other metropolitan areas.

Having what is said to be the longest art exhibit in the world at almost 70 miles (110km), the Stockholm subway system is a labyrinth of colorfully themed stations featuring an assortment of murals and sculptures unique to each stop.

It's around $13 (120 SEK) for an unlimited day pass, which not only allows you to explore the underground gallery but more easily navigate the spread-out districts that make up the city.

You could dedicate an entire trip to simply exploring the museums scattered throughout the city, focusing on everything from art, history and science to the more culturally-inspired Vasa (maritime museum), Nobel Museu, or the Abba Museum which pays tribute to the famous '70s Swedish pop band. Two of my favorite stops were the Fotografiska, a contemporary photography gallery with a top floor cafe overlooking the water, and the Moderna Museet, which houses a substantial permanent collection of modern and contemporary art.

If you’re a foodie, double your travel budget and enjoy! My first meal in Sweden was Reindeer Tartar, and it was amazing! The diet I had while visiting Stockholm was a drastic departure from the ordinary; it not only included reindeer but dishes like braised ox tongue, wild game meatballs and shepherd's pie with foie gras. Each meal seemed to be more delicious than the last. The catch? Eating out can be a bit costly here, so budget accordingly! There's a whole city full of restaurants that I was, unfortunately, unable to sample in my short visit, but I can give a personal recommendation to a few places including Pharmarium, The Flying Elk, Urban Deli Nytorget, Ardbeg Embassy, 800 Grader and Rolfs Kök.

Fika is a concept akin to British tea time and is the perfect mid-day reset especially amidst a busy travel itinerary. It's more about slowing down for a moment to enjoy a drink and a treat than it is about slugging down caffeine to boost your energy.

The Gamla Stan neighborhood is a necessary stop for any Stockholm first-timer but is definitely a more tourist-oriented part of the city.

Gamla Stan is the ‘Old Town’ of Stockholm and is the historic hub of the city.

Home to landmarks like the Swedish Royal Palace, it's a quintessential labyrinth of cobblestone streets lined with vibrant 13th-17th-century buildings that house stores, restaurants and galleries.

If you're in central Stockholm, odds are the turquoise tower of the Storkyrkan will catch your eye on the skyline. Located in the heart of Gamla Stan, this ornate medieval church is definitely worth a visit.

The cathedral's resonate interior is packed with paintings and gilded sculptures that compete for attention with the magnificent gothic architecture.

Södermalm is the island south of Gamla Stan and was my favorite part of the city. It's a developing ‘artistic’ neighborhood full of hip restaurants, cozy cafes and eclectic stores selling everything from vintage fashion to modern Scandinavian home goods.

Each neighborhood seems to provide a different flavor to the city, and Nörrmalm is the bustling modern business and retail center. Home to the Central Station, huge shopping centers and towering office buildings, it's a hive of activity during the day. Crowds thin in the evening, but event centers like the Royal Opera keep the district alive after the shops close up.

Walking along the harbour on Skeppsholmen, an island in the southeast part of Nörrmalm and home to the Moderna Museet.

For the budget-conscious travelers who prefer hostels to hotels, Stockholm has some really unique options for you. The first night I stayed on a ship! The STF af Chapman & Skeppsholmen is a docked ship turned hostel that's a one-of-a-kind lodging experience with great views of the city. I also spent an evening at the City Backpackers Hostel which was a lively and eclectic spot near the Central Station that I would definitely recommend to younger travelers looking for a more social atmosphere.

View of Gamla Stan at night from the STF af Chapman & Skeppsholmen.

Montmartre is set on a hill in northern Paris. It’s a great spot to take your significant other for breathtaking views of the city. Wander through the narrow, winding streets lined with small cafes and shops. Salvador Dali, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh were just a few well-renowned artists who had studios or worked in the Parisian neighborhood.

Couples can take a romantic stroll down the tree-lined Champs-Élysées, the most famous street in Paris, to the Arc de Triomphe. There are dozens of restaurants, theaters and shops along the street, and what’s more romantic than a new Chanel bag? Get a chocolate massage at the Four Seasons George V Hotel, located nearby, if shopping isn't your thing.

The Pont des Arts is another hot spot for lovers. The pedestrian bridge sits over the Seine River. It offers a picturesque view of Île de la Cité, and street musicians help create a wonderful, romantic vibe.

Spend quality time with your sweetheart more than 1,000 feet in the air, getting one of the best views of the City of Light. The Eiffel Tower is the perfect place to propose, but you may have to wait in a long line to take your love to new heights, especially during the spring and summer. Avoid the crowds by packing a basket for a nice picnic in the park below the towering tourist attraction.

The gardens surrounding the Luxembourg Palace has been a hotbed of romance for centuries. Famous couples — from Napoleon and Josephine to Jean-Paul Sarte and Simone de Beauvior — frequented the gardens. Today, lovers still stroll among the beautiful statues, fountains and flowerbeds.

Gare de Lyon is one of the 6 large railway terminals in Paris, but inside, Le Train Bleu restaurant has all the makings for a romantic night. The opulent restaurant, built in 1901, has grandiose sculptures, mural-covered walls and ceilings, crystal chandeliers and shiny brass fittings. Famous regulars included Jean Cocteau, Coco Chanel and Salvador Dali. The fixed-price menu is about $70 per person, whereas the a la carte menu costs about $90 per person. It’s expensive but worth a trip to wine and dine your sweetie.

Located in Paris’ 18th arrondissement, Le Mur Des Je T’aime, aka the Wall of "I Love You's," was created by Frederic Baron and Claire Kito. It has become a meeting place for lovers of love. The wall has “I Love You” written in 250 different languages.

For the adventurous couple, take an hour-long train ride to Versailles to visit the Palace of Versailles, the former residence of King Louis XIV. Spend a few hours visiting the chateau, the manicured gardens and the Domain de Marie-Antoinette. Rent a bike to get around the huge estate and travel down to the main canal, where visitors can rent a paddleboat built for 2.

What’s not to love about visiting the Louvre? It's one of the world’s largest museums, and it's the most-visited art museum in the world. The Louvre is a great tourist attraction for art lovers, with a variety of artwork, including the Greek sculpture Venus de Milo, Antonio de Correggio’s Venus and Cupid With a Satyr, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Paolo Veronese’s The Wedding at Cana.

Le Marais’ Place des Vosges, originally known as the Place Royale, is the oldest planned square in Paris. Catch some sun on the lawn; take a relaxing stroll through the Jardin des Tuileries; and hop on La Grande Roue, aka the Ferris wheel, to wrap up a fun-filled day with your sweetheart.

Take a casual stroll along the Seine near the Île St. Louis, but make sure you bring a blanket, a bottle of wine and some cheese with you. Lay out with your sweetheart, and watch the boats or foot traffic go by. It’s the perfect place to unwind and enjoy the sights.

Pick up 2 tickets for a show at the opulent Palais Garnier. The elegant opera house, built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera, is one of the most famous opera houses in the world.  It was the setting for Gaston Leroux’s 1911 novel The Phantom of the Opera.

The Sacré Coeur Basilica, located in the Paris’ Montmartre neighborhood, is also a popular romantic getaway. Climb the stairs for a spectacular view of the city. The sights and the basilica may inspire you to propose to the one you love. Why not? It's the perfect spot.

St. Germain des Prés is a small area located around the church of the former Abbey of St. Germain des Prés. Pick up a cup of coffee and sit for a spell at a number of famous cafes in the neighborhood, including Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore. It’s a great place for lovers who enjoy people-watching.

Parc des Buttes Chaumont is unquestionably one of Paris’ most romantic settings. It has all the ingredients to qualify it as romantic, including cliffs, grottoes, waterfalls and a lake. Take a long hike up to the replica of Tivoli’s Temple of the Sybille for a kiss on a cliff overlooking the city’s sights.

One of the most popular attractions in all of Amsterdam, The Royal Palace is open for visitors and is especially popular when the tulips are in full bloom.

The Spui Art Market is open every Sunday and consists of up to 25 different artists every week.

See Amsterdam’s famous house boats on a tour down the Prinsengracht Canal.

The largest railway station in Amsterdam, Central Station is one of the first attractions tourists visit upon arrival.

One of the busiest corners in Amsterdam, Rembrandt Square, also known as Rembrandtplein, is named after famous painter Rembrandt van Rijn who resided in town during the 1600s.

Running along the river Amstel, Warmoesstraat is one of the oldest streets in the Netherlands.

Opened in 1960, the Anne Frank House is a biographical museum dedicated to the bravery of the late Anne Frank, a jewish diarist who hid from the Nazis during World War II.

Bloemenmarkt, one of the most beautiful spectacles in all of Amsterdam, is the world’s only floating flower market, located along the city’s southern canal.

Based in the center of the city, the Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge) overlooks the canals running along the river Amstel.

Located along the water and recognized as a piece of pure architecture genius, the Science Center NEMO was designed by Italian engineer Renzo Piano.

The only building in the city that faces 3 different Amsterdam canals, the Huis aan de Drie Grachten is a 17th-century canal house.

The world’s best-known work of art, the "Mona Lisa," finds its home in the world’s most visited museum, the Louvre. For more than 200 years, da Vinci’s famous painting has resided within the Louvre, a treasure trove showcasing nearly 35,000 pieces of artwork from prehistory to the 19th century. Outside is also a visual feast. Here’s a view of the Louvre’s Pyramid, completed in 1989.

Experience this interactive work of public art at Chicago’s Millennium Park. The 50-foot-tall structure -- the brainchild of Spanish Catalan artist and sculptor Jaume Plensa -- is one of 2 towers on which digital video images appear. LED screens showcase actual Chicago residents. The water that spouts through a nozzle on each tower’s front face operates from May to October.

Centuries ago, monastic communities carved more than 30 cave churches and chapels into these towering rock formations in central Turkey. That was just the beginning: Inside, they painted Byzantine-era frescoes. Today, those works of Eastern Roman Empire art -- painted between the 9th and 11th centuries -- remain a unique artistic achievement.

The world of ancient Egypt shines in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Egyptian art collection. The star attraction is the Temple of Dendur (pictured here), a temple built by the Roman governor of Egypt, Petronius, around 15 BC. The Met’s other collections showcase the European masters, as well as works from the ancient Near East, Greek and Roman periods, and the Islamic world.

Michelangelo preferred sculpting to painting. And yet, the “artist who did not want to paint” created one of the most influential works in fresco art in the history of Western art: the painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It’s part of the Vatican Museums, a total of 13 museums in more than a dozen Vatican palaces inside Vatican City.

In the 17th century, the Dutch were among the world’s leaders in trade, science, military might and art. This era -- known as the Dutch Golden Age -- is preserved at the Rijksmuseum, a Dutch national museum in Amsterdam. The museum showcases a large collection of paintings from this period -- such as Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” -- that explain why the Dutch were among the world's artistic leaders in developing landscapes, still lifes and genre painting.

In 1937 the Basque town of Guernica, Spain, suffered an aerial attack in which hundreds of civilians died. Soon after, at the behest of the Spanish Republican government, the artist Pablo Picasso began a mural-size work, “Guernica,” in response to the bombing – and as an expression of the tragedies of war. See the haunting work at the Museo Reina Sofia museum, Spain’s national museum dedicated to 20th-century art.

This Dominican convent in Milan holds a priceless artistic treasure -- that was nearly lost to the world. During World War II, aerial bombs hit the 15th-century church, destroying many of its walls. Luckily, one of the walls of the refectory (dining hall) was spared -- and so was the mural painting that covered it: Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.”

Nature and art combine in tranquil harmony at Storm King Art Center. The 500-acre site, located 1 hour north of NYC, is home to more than 100 carefully placed sculptures. The landscape’s design was the vision of a retired businessman, Ralph Ogden, who founded Storm King in 1960. As you stroll the fields in the lower Hudson Valley, you’ll see massive works of sculpture such as this piece, “Mozart’s Birthday,” by sculptor Mark di Suvero. 

Visitors walk through one of the oldest art museums in the Western world: the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. Construction of the building began in 1560; later, in 1765, it was opened to the public as a museum. Among the treasures you’ll find inside are Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus,” ceiling frescoes and ancient Roman sculptures such as “The Wrestlers.”

Washington, DC’s National Gallery of Art holds a major distinction: It’s home to the only portrait by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas. The Renaissance master’s double-sided portrait of a 15th-century Italian aristocrat, Ginerva de’ Benci, can be found in the West Building’s Main Floor gallery 6.

Known simply as MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan houses one of the finest collections of modern art in the Western world. One of the standouts among the museum’s 150,000 treasures is “The Starry Night” -- the famous 1889 work by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh that captures a view of southern France from his sanatorium room window.

Visitors enter Lakshmana Temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, in central India. Carvings depicting various erotic scenes adorn the southern facade of this Hindu temple, built more than 1,000 years ago. Still, they’re just a small portion of the astonishingly intricate images you’ll see among the more than 600 Hindu deities that adorn both the inside and outside of this sandstone temple.

Before Christopher Columbus set foot in the Americas, a rich civilization thrived in what is now modern-day Mexico. The pre-Columbian era is preserved at Mexico’s Museo Nacional de Antropologia. Inside you’ll find the largest collection of pre-Columbian artifacts in Mexico, such as the Aztec Stone of the Sun, a large monolithic sculpture that was discovered in 1790.

This earthwork sculpture, constructed over a 6-day period in 1970, was built entirely of mud, basalt rocks, salt crystals, earth and water. It was the creation of American artist Robert Smithson, who coined the term “earthworks” art. "Spiral Jetty" is Smithson’s most famous example of this art form. While exposure to the elements has changed the jetty’s original colors, it remains a fixture of the northeastern shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake.