The heat that gushes from the earth and the presence of surreal smoke inspired its founder Ingolfùr Arnarson, who gave it the name "Smoky Bay". Today, Reykjavík is a model for environmental, human and intellectual sustainability that is based on an increasingly rare concept: collaboration. Not surprisingly, the StressfulCity Index 2021, which gave the city 100 points out of 100, names it the best city in the world to live peacefully in.
Strange city, Reykjavík. It is the size of a country, with the spirit of a city. Its name means “Smoky Bay.” It was chosen by the founder Ingólfur Arnarson around approximately 870 AD due to the geothermal vapors that surround the area. The world as we know it does not exist in this borderland. Reykjavík represents the concrete outpost on the edge of an imaginary abstraction: it offers geographic solitude unknown to those living in continental Europe. However, it is also a place that attracts and draws you in.
Traveling along the only road that surrounds the entire island, also connecting the airport to the city, you immediately immerse yourself in the beauty of a foreign world, because the vitrified lava, the ice that plays with the arctic light, the wind that tears apart the great fjords, and the Northern Lights, seem out of this world. Nature found here is unlike anywhere else in the world and it makes Reykjavík absolutely unique. Perhaps it is because people with an airtight, ice-cold sense of humor live here. That's because between the steamy and sulphurous hot springs and nightlife, Reykjavík really knows how to heat things up. The capital is a mix of colorful buildings, quirky characters, unconventional nightlife and a complex soul - it has pleasantly devastating effects on travelers from all over the world. Many fall madly in love with it. What's more, as soon as they return home, they plan to return as soon as possible.
It is no coincidence: for twenty years, Reykjavík has consistently been at the top of the rankings of the most exciting cities in the world. To understand why, you just have to go there on the weekend, especially in summer, when the city center streets become a huge open-air venue. Or read Hallgrímus Helgason's 101 Reykjavík, an editorial success that has an autobiographical background. Much, of course, depends on its inhabitants. The approximately 120 thousand that make up the city's population do not allow themselves to be hardened by the cold and the few hours of light; instead, they have taken to the bizarre climate. The inhabitants of the capital are all related to each other as ninth degree cousins and, above all, they are young: the under 45s currently make up one of the highest percentages in the world in a country where the population density is shocking: fewer than three people per square kilometer. This completely Icelandic attitude is projected above all by its geography: the island is in a position between the Gulf Stream and the icy winds of the Arctic, so the sun can come out at any moment and the rain can also travel horizontally. Under these conditions, it is difficult to be serious. However, the heat that gushes from the earth and the presence of that surreal smoke that envelops it in a white cloud lead us to forget that the capital is also the rigorous and nerve center of Iceland: the government is based here, there is a prestigious University, museums and internationally listed cultural centers. This is where most of the business that keeps the country's economy on its feet develops. Always in the same place, in a white house in the middle of an unfenced lawn, lives the President of the Republic.
Despite the distance from the rest of the world - the closest countries are Greenland, 300 kilometers away, and the Danish Faroe Islands, 450 - Icelanders are a population marked by their great curiosity and faith in the future. According to the Stressful City Index 2021, for example, Reykiavík is the best city in the world to peacefully live in: with 100 points out of 100, the Icelandic capital ranked first in terms of its commitment to ensuring inclusion in terms of safety and gender and ethnic equality. Its pollution or traffic levels are extremely low, because Icelanders know that living in harmony with nature promotes well-being.