St. Petersburg

With a year-round sun-bleached cityscape and boasting of a charming, subtropical disposition, the city of St. Petersburg is a tapestry of breathtaking waterfront parks, gardens, and beaches. St. Petersburg rests on a peninsula on Florida's west coast, shielding the adjacent Tampa Bay and acting as a breakwater to nearby Tampa. The land was purchased by John C. Williams in 1876, and the terminus of a new rail line was installed by his business partner Peter Demens. Demens won the rights to name the city, selecting the name of his part-time hometown in Russia. The relatively inaccessible peninsula was connected to the mainland first by the nation's first scheduled commercial flights in 1914, and soon, the Gandy Bridge in 1924. The city's myriad neighborhoods are its true crown jewels, where some quarter denotes a long-standing history, while some other brims with contemporary art galleries, boutiques, and museums. Every turn of the street here reveals a wealth of attractions, resembling a picture drawn right out of a postcard. One of the most heaving cities on the coast of Florida, St. Petersburg greatly epitomizes a laid-back, picturesque paradise.