{"id":547982,"date":"2026-09-06T06:00:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T06:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/livelycity.com\/switzerland\/fabulous-museums-and-no-queues-five-of-the-best-under-the-radar-city-breaks-in-europe\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T06:00:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T06:00:57","slug":"fabulous-museums-and-no-queues-five-of-the-best-under-the-radar-city-breaks-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/livelycity.com\/switzerland\/fabulous-museums-and-no-queues-five-of-the-best-under-the-radar-city-breaks-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Fabulous museums and no queues\u2019: five of the best under-the-radar city breaks in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the Renaissance treasures of Parma to offbeat creativity in Nantes, these cities offer world-class art, great food and a laid-back alternative to Europe\u2019s hotspots<\/p>\n<p>As dilemmas go, it\u2019s an unusual one: saddle up a giant squid or board a submersible for a voyage to the bottom of the ocean. In the end, I find myself drawn to a fierce-looking merhorse and tentatively take the reins. High above, my daughter glides by on a flying fish, metallic fins flapping, while her Dad is battling stormy seas at the helm of a huge conch shell. A ride on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lesmachines-nantes.fr\/en\/discover\/the-carrousel-des-mondes-marins\/\">Carrousel des Mondes Marins<\/a> (marine worlds carousel) \u2013 a three-storey steampunk merry-go-round inspired by Jules Verne\u2019s novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea \u2013 is one of the highlights of a visit to Nantes. A surreal fairground ride, a work of art and a homage to the city\u2019s most famous son. It\u2019s also a lot of fun.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/travel\/2026\/sep\/06\/under-radar-city-breaks-europe-hidden-gems\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/travel\/2026\/sep\/06\/under-radar-city-breaks-europe-hidden-gems\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/travel\/2026\/sep\/06\/under-radar-city-breaks-europe-hidden-gems<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Renaissance treasures of Parma to offbeat creativity in Nantes, these cities offer world-class art, great food and a laid-back alternative to Europe\u2019s hotspots&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":547983,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-547982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","wpcat-7-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/livelycity.com\/switzerland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4994-tNvOY6.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livelycity.com\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livelycity.com\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livelycity.com\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livelycity.com\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/livelycity.com\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livelycity.com\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livelycity.com\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livelycity.com\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livelycity.com\/switzerland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}