Charlottesville

Charlottesville is located near the geographic center of Virginia. It's most famous for being the home of the University of Virginia and Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home. In recent years Charlottesville has been ranked at or near the top of various lists of "best places to live in the United States". The surrounding countryside of Albemarle County has become a popular place for the rich (mega-millionaires and billionaires) and famous (actors and sports stars) to live - when they're not off doing the things that make them rich and/or famous.

The city of Charlottesville has a little over 40,000 residents while the population of the region is over 185,000. The city is governed by a city council and administered on a day-to-day basis by a city manager. Albemarle County has an elected Board of Supervisors which appoints a County Executive to run the county's daily affairs.

Charlottesville is located right on I-64, providing easy access to Richmond to the east and the mountains of Virginia to the west. Route 29 is the primary north-south thorofare, leading toward Lynchburg to the south and the cities and counties of Northern Virginia to the north.

The combination of geographic location (foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains), education (University of Virginia), and cultural activities are the reasons that Charlottesville was called "Best Place to Live in America" by Frommer's guides. For four years in a row Money magazine has ranked Charlottesville as one of the top 100 places to live.