Saint Pete City (Flickr) – click any image for full size
Saint Pete City is the latest region design by Neva Xenga (Neva Crystall) to open in Second Life. As the name suggests, this is an urban environment, one with a strong Dutch influence in terms of architecture and feel.
The landing point places visitors on a small coastal cove sitting between high shoulders of rock, a lighthouse standing guard to one side. Facing this across the street, is Saint Pete, awaiting your pleasure under a slightly sombre evening sky. Here the streets are largely cobbled, and the architecture very much modelled on that of The Netherlands, with copious numbers of bicycles scattered around to add to the feeling that one is not a great distance away from Amsterdam, Rotterdam or Utrecht.
Walk through the streets and you come across coffee shops, bric-a-brac stores, bookshops, a bicycle shop, hotel, art gallery (where some of Loverdag’s superb images are on display) – in short, everything you’d expect to find in a cosmopolitan environment. There’s even an old industrial unit, now empty and perhaps awaiting being put to a new use.
Such is the design of the region, it’s easy to imagine you’re walking through a much large area than is the case – a feeling enhanced on the west side of the region, where, between the town and a rocky plateau, sits a walk under denuded trees, apparently caught in early winter, with benches available for warmer days, when strolling couple might want to set and rest, all of which gives the feeling of walking from one part of town to another as one passes through it.
Many of the houses and stores here are empty, but others – such as the coffee shops and stores mentioned above are not, and visitors are welcome to enter them and sit or browse – and the wine shop / bar comes particularly recommended. For those with local sounds enabled, Saint Pete is another of the many regions in SL where care has been taken to create ambient sound scape to enhance the feeling of walking a busy community.
All of Neva’s sim designs demonstrate a wonderful eye for detail and offer environments rich for exploration and Saint Pete City really is no exception. Caitlyn and I spent a pleasant time wandering around, bumping into to people and enjoying the sights and sounds, and took time out to rest on one of the many benches found in the various squares, listening to the birds and the sounds echoing up the street, before rounding things off by sitting in the local wine bar, enjoying a glass of wine and one another’s company – just as we all might do while enjoying our time immersed in a visit to somewhere new.
SLurl Details
- Saint Pete City (Rated: Moderate)
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