Hi guys,

I am a huge fan of SC4 and therefore I could not stand to live without Simtropolis, so THANK YOU ALL for making this the greatest Sim City ever!!!

I've made many many cities, my style is between realism and imagination, I am a frequent traveler and I love big cities;

I decided to post my first CJ after many many years of playing,

I am Italian and had the chance to live for some time in Paris, Brussels, London. I was born in Naples, just left Milan for a small town in Tuscany, I've also spent some time In Antwerp (Anvers is the french name for it), working there in a big shipping company , I like Belgium is the very heart of Europe, thanks to its position;

I like realism but building Anvers I've added a lot of imagination (i.e. pretending it was adjacent to the sea or having nice sandy beaches). But what is life without some sane imagination?

So here I am, I designed a very basic region, I do not love to spend days in terraforming, so I wanted to have a easy-to-build-on Region, making it easier to build ports, waterfronts etc. The heart of the region, the big city center is going to be the crossing of the two inland channels. (see below)

Even large tiles (which are preferred to the medium-small) layout was made on purpose:  I wanted the city center connected to as many as possible large tiles (6).

Now let me start posting some little intros, which will guide you to what the recent growth of the City has meant, how the city looks 'tonite'.

Once upon a time (somewere in Europe, year 1995)...

City is developing big time, we are in the 90's, and economy is booming, thanks to the fact Anvers was recently made 'Free Port City State' of the European Union in 1989, right after Berlin Wall (and cold war) demolition. Anvers was then declared an independent city, (although in the 'Benelux' European Region) with its own government and economy, as a neutral City as the main destinations for Containers and goods coming from any Extra European country (namely USA, Russia, China and Central and Southern America) as all imported goods could be registered as being 'EU ready' having to pay very little duties, but still the main source of revenues for the Free Port City State of Anvers. Also Export from EU was made easier if done through Anvers as any extra EU destination would immediately recognized and accepted those as 'Duty Paid' Goods.

Result was that many Industries and Companies moved to Anvers and its Port with its neighbor, the Hendrik Intercontinental - City Cargo Airport (named after Hendrik Conscience), were completely flooded of billions.

Before that and during the 20th Century Anvers was widely known for its Diamonds District and Commerce/Market, about 84% of the world's rough diamonds pass through the district each year.

As of Today, around 1Mio people lives in Anvers, but the Population is increasing very fast.

Below the Anvers Central Station, located in Anvers Centrum (ACM1) built in the 1905. It's currently (1995) the busiest in the Benelux, thanks to the 480% increase he last 5 years.

Anvers is connected to London and Paris with 16 Fast Trains per day, (taking 3,2 Hours to London and 1,2 hour to Paris). Anvers is also connected obviously to Brussels (30mins by Train) and Amsterdam (12 trains per day, 2 hours) , Kolnh (via Rhur) and then Berlin, with12 fast trains per day.

More to come...