What are the instantly recognizable symbols that represent your city? And more importantly, what do you think of them?

We hash out the whys behind the icons that make our cities (or the cities we travel to) famous.

We also ask, do you travel to a city because of the icons there, or are they what make that place feel more familiar once you arrive? Is the purpose of a city symbol, like the Seattle Space Needle, the St. Louis Arch, or the Eiffel Tour, to lure travelers to a city, or to make them feel like they have fully seen it when they leave?

And what about gastronomic icons? Can you really say you've been to Seattle if you haven't had a cuppa from the original Starbucks? Would you really leave Lisbon without trying a cream cake from Pastéis de Belém? Can you go to New York without eating a Pastrami sandwich at Katz's Deli? If you don't sample a city's local dish, will you have somehow missed out? Not experienced the true city?

And in that sense, where does city icon end and tourist trap begin? We discuss all this and more on the latest episode of The Bittersweet Life.

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