What images come to your mind when asked to picture a romantic city?

Paris seems to be the global consensus choice when it comes to a place that was just made for lovers, but Rome or Venice might give it a run for its money. A bit closer to home, for our North American readers, I hear Savannah invoked a lot in association with romance. Maybe New Orleans. Maybe Quebec City. These are just a few that seem to be on our culture’s short list.

What is it about these places? And why are there so many places that nobody would think for a second of putting on this list? After all, nobody shoots their engagement photos in a suburban cul-de-sac.

…. Well, almost nobody.

All of the cities on the short list of aphrodisiac places, I’d argue, that have something deeply compelling in and of themselves. They are widely considered beautiful for their architecture and historic charm, but more fundamentally they are lovable places, places worth caring about. They are old places that have endured because of the love that generation after generation has showered upon them.

And when we spend time in a place like that—a place that, right down to the stone or brick or whatever it’s made of, evokes care and protection and permanence—we can’t help but project those emotions ourselves. I believe, in other words, that being in lovable places enhances our own capacity to feel and give love.

Here are six things that help make a city lovable, and the kind of place that might inspire you to love someone as well.

1. Lovable places are harmonious and subconsciously pleasing.

Lovable cities are beautiful. And in all of them, it’s the ensemble that’s beautiful, not merely the architecture. You can find one-off examples of great buildings in many cities, but the beauty of great urban design is something else entirely. It requires a repeated harmony, a fractal elegance from the tiniest details to the overall arrangement of a place around key landmarks. There is a sense of pleasing proportion that extends into the streets and along them. The rules for this type of design are more than a little bit ingrained in our very psychology—something in us as humans yearns for places that are unconsciously pleasing.

Listen: Why We Should Build Cities for Our Unconscious Brains