Top 5 Most Romantic Cities

MAKE UP while strolling through midtown Manhattan’s blocks and blocks of bling (Tiffany & Co., Cartier, H. Stern, Harry Winston, the 47th Street Diamond District). If that’s too heavily symbolic, try either of New York’s breathtaking public gardens. The New York (Bronx) Botanical Garden’s yearly orchid show, a stamen-and-pistil showdown, will provide an exotic, slightly steamy backdrop for heartfelt apologies. Later in the spring, check out the riotous cherry blossoms or luscious lily pools at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden—with the conservatory next to it all set up for one of the umpteen weddings held there. Who could stay mad? Seal the reconciliation with dinner at the River Café.

HAVE DARING SEX in the backseat of a cab. Scientists have not yet explained why this is so exciting, but it is. Other options: between stops on the G train or late at night in a horse-drawn carriage in Central Park.

WHO ELSE: Donald Trump and Marla (“Best Sex I Ever Had”) Maples; Tony Randall and Jack Klugman; Derek Jeter and the women of the Bronx; F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald; Woody Allen and Diane Keaton; Woody Allen and Mia Farrow; Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn; Holly Golightly and Tiffany’s. Anyone running through traffic to meet the love of his/her life at the top of the Empire State Building.

ONLY IN NEW YORK CAN YOU… stay up all night and then go out for dinner; ogle the other beautiful people over the $62 fruits de mer and champagne at Blue Ribbon in SoHo or Brooklyn’s Park Slope; wash down your duck meatloaf and gravy fries with a milkshake at Chelsea’s Diner 24; have a Chinese rice pudding dish while you wait your turn for karaoke at Congee Village on the Lower East Side; or go to Katz’s (remember Meg Ryan’s “I’ll have what she’s having” scene?) and get in the mood to go home again.

Miami by Tom Austin