![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Rome_231025_GettyImages-1922149280.jpg\"\/)
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The Coliseum, RomeGetty Images<\/p>\n
With books influencing our adventures more than ever before, UK-based printing company Aura Print determined the most popular European cities<\/a> within the realm of literature. To do so, the team compiled a list of the 30 most populous European cities and then used Google Ngram Viewer, an online tool that allows for the exploration of language usage trends over time.<\/p>\n The research then picked out the number of mentions each city received between 1920 and 2019, across more than 25 million books.<\/p>\n So, which metropolis proved the most popular among the past century\u2019s storytellers?<\/p>\n It\u2019s London<\/a>, the beating heart of the UK, that appears to have got the creative juices flowing, with an incredible 286,675,501 mentions. The revelation comes as little surprise to those of us who call the Big Smoke home, of course; some of the world\u2019s most iconic literary characters have navigated the city\u2019s streets on their quests. While Aura Print\u2019s research covers books published from 1920 onwards, Dickens\u2019 tales of misty East London<\/a> alleyways and Arthur Conan Doyle\u2019s tales of Sherlock Holmes continue to influence travellers\u2019 destinations of choice.<\/p>\n Tower Bridge, LondonGetty Images<\/p>\n The City of Light came second, with 95,290,475 mentions. The most popular decade for literary mentions of Paris was the 1920s, although more contemporary reads suggested a range from The Little Paris Bookshop to Paris is Always a Good Idea.<\/p>\n![\"Tower](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/London_231025_GettyImages-2076059030.jpg\"\/)
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