Lahore

Lahore was the favorite city of the Mughal emperors — Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan all built here, and what survives is some of the finest Mughal architecture anywhere. The walled old city is still a daily-life place, not a museum: spice markets, brass workers, embroiderers, all working in the lanes their families have worked in for generations. Food Street outside Wazir Khan Mosque is the Punjabi food itinerary in a single block. Allama Iqbal lived and is buried here. The city carries Urdu poetry the way Florence carries Renaissance painting.