Days of sun and beach on Pacific and glamor in Hollywood with spectacular mountain backdrop, Los Angeles has many reasons to visit. Fascinating, seductive and, for many, overwhelming, if you know your way around it.
Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States after New York , extending along the Pacific coast of southern California. Your occupies 122 km coastline from Malibu to Long Beach, while inland city stretches across an enormous flat and arid basin surrounded by mountains of Santa Monica and San Gabriel.
The Arrival by plane provides an excellent impression of the city. Among the huge plain grid of streets and buildings, suddenly appears a group of towering skyscrapers that mark the center of the city ( Downtown ), located 26 km inland from the coast. To the northeast lies Pasadena; west and north Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Century City and the San Fernando Valley; Long Beach to the south and along the coast are Santa Monica, Venice Beach and Marina del Rey.
The city, founded in 1781 by Mexican settlers, was baptized with the name of the large town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of Porciuncula. Since then, it has been called by many different names, from La La Land to Tiseltown, although currently it is known as LA. However, Los Angeles is really only the largest of the 88 cities that together form the greater metropolitan area known as Los Angeles.
Throughout the decades, the city grew from a small cattle population to a boom town for the gold rush and then the oil. Today, you can still see the oil extraction pumps up and down like huge mechanical donkeys. In the late nineteenth century, settlers heading west in large numbers, attracted by the same thing today continues to attract newcomers: the mild climate, sea and sunshine. The city has an average of 292 days of sunshine per year, low rainfall and cool ocean breezes temperatures. The sunsets can become truly fabulous.
But the defining moment that gave fame to the city came in 1920, when the film industry realized that what was missing in New York, then the capital of American cinema, was precisely sun. The industry moved west and Hollywood, then a single neighborhood, became famous. Today, Hollywood studios have all major companies like Paramount, Universal, Fox and Warner Brother that make this city? Entertainment capital of the world?.
However, Los Angeles is more than oi Disneyland Hollywood, the most famous amusement park in America. The city also hosts many world renowned cultural institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Philharmonic (based in the stunning Walt Disney Concert Hall) and the Getty Museum.
Tourists continue to visit the huge Hollywood sign in Griffith Park and the mansions of the stars in Beverly Hills, but also come to enjoy the nightlife of Sunset Strip, the beach, the culture of cars or just people watching. Los Angeles is an exuberant city. In Los Angeles there is room for everyone. Hippies obsessed of healthy living, muscular sports fans, lovers and devotees of Art Deco eccentric religions coexist with the rich and famous. Los Angeles represents the dreams of people-whether or silicone-classic cars and thousands of people keep coming to the city in search of fortune and a new life. It is the gate of entry for immigrants from Asia, the Pacific, Eastern Europe, Mexico and Latin America. Do not forget that in this city live people from 160 countries who speak 96 different languages.
LA is also a mosaic of diversity and areas which have separate and distinct cultural traits. South Los Angeles, with most traditionally African American population is increasingly becoming an area predominantly Latino population. The area, made famous by film and hip hop , also houses the richest black community across the country in the neighborhood of Baldwin Hills. The Crenshaw district is also home to two famous black churches, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church (FAME) and the West Angeles Church of God in Christ . Leimert Park area, by contrast, is famous for its scene of jazz , its art and culture. With good sense of humor, open-minded and eager to enjoy Los Angeles will not die.
