My favorite cities to explore are the ones that have come together organically rather than according to a plan. Where some city centers were built on a grid with each building aligned closely with the road beside it and each street meeting the others at a perfect 90-degree angle, I prefer the cities that arose without such careful design. These are the cities where the streets wind and turn, where roads meet and cross one another at quirky angles, where creative traffic signals are needed to protect drivers and pedestrians from themselves.
Most of these cities had inauspicious beginnings. One person crossed an empty field to get from one place to another, then did so a second time and a third. Soon another person followed in his faint footsteps, then another and another. Gradually, over time, a track was worn. The track eventually became a path and then, as time passed and traffic grew, the path was widened to a road. As still more people passed that way, houses were built beside it and shops were founded to serve the passersby. A hamlet became a village became a town became a city. By then it was too
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