Discover the USA, the online guide dedicated to your journey in the United States of America

Luxuriant forests of oaks and walnut trees underline the curvy hills and cliffs, forming a maze of deep caves in the southern part of the State. In the north, gently rolling plains and prairies are crossed by rivers bordered of trees.

The State also counts several very active cities, the largest ones being Saint Louis, Kansas City and Springfield.

Missouri has been home to a great number of famous persons. Two hours to the north of Saint-Louis, visit Hannibal, the birthplace of Mark Twain, on the banks of Mississippi. Today an industrial city, it hardly resembles the quiet city in the 1840s anymore, but you can still visit the writer's house, who still keeps its original furnitures, as well as the Mark Twain Museum, which preserves memories and photographs of the father of Tom Sawyer.

Visit also Saint-Joseph, where Jesse James, one of the West's lawbreakers got killed, and where the famous Pony Express started its career..

Saint-Louis
The city of rock'n'roll legendes - Chuck Berry and Johnnie “B.Goode” Johnson were one of them - was founded in 1764, under the reign of Louis XV (thus the name Saint Louis), by a French fur trader named Pierre Laclede, who built a commercial center for animal fur there. The city was almost exclusively populated by the French at its beginning, which did not fail to influence the city by their character. New France of the time would be repurchased later by the United States (in 1804) together with the remainder of “Louisiana”.

In 1849, most of the city, mainly in edge of the Mississippi river, was ruined by a fire. From the middle of the 19th century, German immigrants started to flow.

At the dawn of the 19th century, St Louis was used as departing point for countless colonists and adventurers attracted by the West: on the territory of National Jefferson Expansion Memorial, the extraordinary Gateway Arch, symbol of the role as “Door of the West” that was formerly Saint-Louis, draws up its 192 meters height. Elevators in the shape of capsule give access to the observatory. It is the work of the Finnish architect Eero Saarinen (1910-1961).

Forest Park was the place where the World Fair was held of 1804, “The Louisiana Purchase Exposition”, at the time of the hundredth birthday of the French Louisiana Purchase by the United States. There you will find the Zoological Garden, City Art Museum (housing some of Holbein and Rembrandt paintings), Jefferson Memorial, the Municipal Opera, McDonnell Planetarium and Steinberg Skating Rink.

In Miles Fountain, at the Aloe Plaza, an ensemble of fountains called the Meeting of the Waters was built by the Swedish sculptor Carl Milles (1785-1955), symbolizing the confluence of Mississippi and Missouri.

Kansas City

Towards 1825, French trappers arrived in this area, in the mouth of the Kansas River. There, they established a commercial place which did not take long to gain importance with the agricultural development. The urban expansion was then braked during the years of Civil War, but thanks to its privileged situation on Missouri, as well as the extension of the rail network, it only took Kansas City a short time to regain its prosperity.

A large number of fountains (it is said that there are are as many fountains in Kansas City as it is in Rome) and a refined architecture and a nightlife accented by jazz and blues make the State's second-largest city a great place to visit.

There you can find the theme park called World of Fun, Liberty Memorial honoring the First World War victims and William Rockhill Nelso Gallery.

Not far from Kansas City, in Independence, you will be able to discover the house of Harry Truman, the 33th US President, together with Truman Museum and Library.

Springfield/Branson

Springfield lies on the west slope of Ozark Mountains.

In a short distance you will find Branson, the city who has acquired the statute as one of the Music Meccas of America. Many rock and country musicians have opened concert halls here (today we can count up to 46 concert halls), in the middle of a picturesque frame of forest-covered mountains and sparkling lakes.