[llamaorama]

Sure but Rome is...Rome... What it lacks in present day economic might it makes up for in millenia old historic cultural influence. It's one of the great old world cities like Istanbul, Cairo, and Beijing.

I think what he's asking is some national capital equivalent to Albany or Jefferson City. Going through my mental list of world capitals I am having a hard time finding one, especially in any "advanced" country in Europe, North America, East Asia, etc etc. Kyoto is not the biggest Japanese city but its still damn urban. Bern is not necessarily the #1 swiss city but its a decentralized country, Wellington and Canberra are small but not by the standards of that part of the world. Belmopan, Belize is a contender, but Belize as a whole is so small and its a modern planned city. There are many countries with new planned cities as capitals dating to the 50's, 60's, and later, but most of those cities have grown a little since and the ones that aren't are kind of tenous in their status(Napiydaw for example is a sort of a mess, if the Burmese have a regime change will it still exist?). Likewise Putrajaya is not done yet and was a suburb of KL anywyas.