Route 66: from east to west

Chicago rises along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, the third-largest city in the United States and the acknowledged birthplace of the modern skyscraper: here, after the Great Fire of 1871, American architecture reinvented itself, giving rise to one of the most famous skylines in the world. Its beating heart is the Loop, the business district encircled by the elevated 'L' train, where masterpieces by Louis Sullivan, Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright stand side by side. A short walk leads to Millennium Park, with the gleaming 'Cloud Gate' sculpture (nicknamed 'The Bean' by locals) and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion designed by Frank Gehry. Nearby, the Art Institute of Chicago, one of America's great museums, guards Impressionist masterpieces and Grant Wood's celebrated 'American Gothic'. Along the water, the Chicago Riverwalk offers another vantage on the city, while the boats of the Architecture River Cruise glide between the façades, recounting a century and a half of building ingenuity. Toward the lake, Navy Pier with its Ferris wheel and the Magnificent Mile, the elegant stretch of Michigan Avenue lined with shops and hotels, set the rhythm of city life. Yet Chicago is also music and flavour: the home of electric blues and jazz resounds in the clubs of the South Side, while its tables serve the hearty deep-dish pizza, Chicago-style hot dogs and the food markets of lively neighbourhoods such as Pilsen and West Loop. Rising to the 412-metre Skydeck of the Willis Tower, the gaze sweeps across the lake and the boundless Illinois plain. A city of lakes and skyscrapers, of jazz and bold architecture, Chicago reveals itself on foot, amid the gusts that earned it the nickname 'Windy City' and the unmistakable energy of the American Midwest.

What remains of Route 66 and its modern version, I-55, diagonally connect the two metropolises of Chicago and St. Louis in a predominantly rural landscape, through cornfields that stretch to the horizon and flat prairies as far as the eye can see. The hinterland of the two cities is heavily industrial and rather poor, and doesn't really offer much to the traveler looking for traces of the "Mother Road". The only real city along the entire route is the capital of Illinois, Springfield, which has well-preserved sections of Route 66 as well as memories related to President Lincoln. However, there are also dozens of scattered small towns that strive to maintain a connection with Route 66, and almost all of them boast at least one landmark. St. Louis announces itself from afar with the unmistakable silhouette of the Gateway Arch, the 192-metre steel arch celebrating the westward expansion of the United States. Overlooking the banks of the Mississippi, this historic Missouri city blends grand nineteenth-century boulevards, a fervent musical past and a lively dining scene. The Forest Park district, larger than New York's Central Park, is home to museums, the zoo and the Saint Louis Art Museum, all free to enter. A cradle of blues and ragtime, it preserves historic venues where live music has never fallen silent, while the famous Anheuser-Busch brewery recounts the city's beer-making heritage. Don't miss the scenic ride to the top of the arch. St. Louis is where frontier America meets the great river metropolises.

Springfield rises in the heart of the rolling Ozarks region of southwestern Missouri and is known as the "Birthplace of Route 66," the legendary highway that was named here in 1926. This welcoming American city proudly preserves the memory of the "Mother Road," celebrated in museums and nostalgic neon signs. A must-see is the colossal Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Aquarium, among the largest aquariums in the country, dedicated to wildlife and natural habitats. The surrounding area opens onto the rural landscapes of the Ozarks, with lakes, caves, and woodland trails ideal for nature lovers. The nearby town of Branson adds entertainment and live shows. Springfield is an authentic stop for those traveling the great road-trip routes of the United States.

Oklahoma City spreads broad and modern across the heart of the Great Plains, capital of a state where cowboy culture meets contemporary urban energy. The revitalised Bricktown district, with its old brick warehouses overlooking a navigable canal, brims with restaurants, bars and galleries. The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum tells the saga of the West, while the Oklahoma City National Memorial honours, with quiet intensity, the victims of the 1995 bombing. Those drawn to tradition will find a tribute to the state's native nations at the First Americans Museum. Local cuisine celebrates grilled meats and Southwestern flavours, best enjoyed in classic steakhouses and the still-active stockyards. Oklahoma City is an authentic stop along the routes of Route 66, balancing frontier spirit and renewal.

After leaving Oklahoma City, continue along Route 66 until you reach Hydro, Texas, and visit Lucille's Service Station. Built in 1929, it is one of the few remaining historic service stations on Route 66 in Oklahoma. Continue along Route 66 to the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton. Here you will find memorabilia that tells the story and legends of the most famous highway in the United States. As you cross the state border towards Amarillo, Texas, you will travel through a part of Route 66 rich in vintage icons and references to the Wild West. Long stretches of the old road still remain, in various places with the original pavement. Amarillo rises in the heart of the Texas Panhandle, a land of endless prairies and Route 66 legends. A historic crossroads on the famous "Mother Road", the city preserves the rugged, authentic spirit of the Wild West, with its legendary steakhouses and sprawling ranches. A few kilometres south opens Palo Duro Canyon, the second-largest canyon in the United States, a spectacular red-rock gorge crossed by trails for hiking and horseback riding. Not to be missed is the quirky Cadillac Ranch, an art installation of graffiti-covered cars planted in the ground that has become an icon of road-trip culture. Amarillo is an authentic stop for those crossing the great American plains in search of endless horizons.

Albuquerque stretches along the Rio Grande in New Mexico, where Native, Hispanic and Anglo heritage blend beneath an immense, luminous sky. Its ancient core is Old Town, founded in 1706, with the church of San Felipe de Neri, earth-coloured adobe buildings and pueblo craft shops. High above, the Sandia Peak Tramway — one of the longest aerial tramways in the world — climbs to the crest of the Sandia Mountains for sweeping desert views. The city is famous worldwide for the International Balloon Fiesta, when hundreds of hot-air balloons colour the autumn dawn. New Mexican cuisine carries the aroma of green and red chile, sopaipillas and pueblo dishes. Amid red mesas, art and Native culture, Albuquerque is the gateway to the authentic Southwest.

From Albuquerque to Santa Fe, you can travel along the Turquoise Trail, a scenic road that goes from Albuquerque to Santa Fe and crosses the hills of New Mexico, offering beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and old ghost towns. It is recommended to make a stop in Madrid, once a ghost town, now a gathering place for artists. Santa Fe guards a singular soul: capital of New Mexico and the oldest of all the United States' state capitals, it wins you over at first glance with its unmistakable terracotta-coloured adobe architecture. Its beating heart is the historic Plaza, flanked by the Palace of the Governors, where Native American artisans display silver and turquoise jewellery. Nearby rise the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and Canyon Road, the famous gallery-lined street that made Santa Fe one of America's art capitals. The city pulses with Hispanic and Pueblo culture, with its green-chile spiced cuisine, museums devoted to Georgia O'Keeffe and the peaks of the Sangre de Cristo mountains as a backdrop. Santa Fe reveals itself through art, spirituality and desert light.

Holbrook is a classic town on historic Route 66, in northeastern Arizona, gateway to the striking Petrified Forest National Park. Here stands the famous Wigwam Motel, with its concrete tepee-shaped rooms, an icon of American road nostalgia. The nearby park holds vividly coloured petrified logs and the lunar landscapes of the Painted Desert. Between fossils, vintage motels and Mother Road memorabilia, Holbrook offers an authentic immersion in the atmosphere of the Southwest and the great American road trip.

The South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park is the most visited side of one of the planet's most famous natural wonders, in Arizona. From here open dizzying vistas over the immense gorge carved by the Colorado River, over 1,600 metres deep and up to 29 kilometres wide. Grand Canyon Village, the historic El Tovar Hotel and overlooks such as Mather Point and Yavapai Point offer unforgettable views. Trails like the Bright Angel Trail descend toward the river. A geological spectacle and UNESCO World Heritage Site, the South Rim leaves visitors breathless.

The long journey from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas has some interesting points. You descend along Route 64 through the ponderosa pines of the Kaibab National Forest until you reach Williams, where we recommend a short stop before getting on the I-40 highway to Las Vegas. Williams' Main Street is the best-preserved stretch of Route 66 in the USA: at every corner, you can see old gas pumps, diners, jukeboxes, and various memories from the 1950s. You continue on Interstate I-40 until you reach Kingman, where you take US-93. You enter Nevada through a new bridge over the Colorado River, downstream from the Hoover Dam, built in the 1930s during the Great Depression and still a spectacular engineering feat. The dam forms Lake Mead, the largest artificial lake in the USA in terms of volume. Las Vegas rises like a luminous mirage in the Mojave Desert, the world capital of entertainment, where excess becomes spectacle and the night never ends. Its pulsing artery is the Strip, the famous Las Vegas Boulevard lined with themed resorts that recreate the planet's great icons in miniature: at the Bellagio, fountains dance in choreographies of water and music before an artificial lake; the Paris Las Vegas is crowned by a replica of the Eiffel Tower; at the Venetian, gondoliers glide along Venetian-style canals beneath painted skies; at the Luxor, a black glass pyramid and a great sphinx evoke ancient Egypt, while the Mirage and the other gaming giants animate the scene with dazzling casinos. By night the city becomes a continuous stage: Cirque du Soleil shows, concerts, magic acts and residencies by major stars fill the theatres, while celebrated restaurants and gaming tables keep the metropolis awake until dawn. A short distance away, historic Downtown preserves the city's original face around the Fremont Street Experience, a pedestrian arcade canopied by a barrel vault of LED lights that brings the old Las Vegas back to life amid vintage neon signs and a more intimate atmosphere. Yet Las Vegas is also the gateway to magnificent natural landscapes: nearby, the Hoover Dam blocks the Colorado River to create Lake Mead, an ideal basin for boating and outdoor activities; Red Rock Canyon offers red sandstone formations crossed by trails and climbing walls; the Valley of Fire sets the desert ablaze with scarlet rock; and to the east opens the immensity of the Grand Canyon, one of the most beloved day trips. The city's most theatrical tradition is here too, that of the wedding chapels where couples marry in minutes, now an integral part of its legend. Between lights, desert and desire, Las Vegas remains a place where anything seems possible.

You cross the Mojave Desert dotted with Joshua Trees (a variety of yucca), between canyons, hills, mesas, dunes, volcanic ash cones, and, in the very short spring, expanses of wildflowers: an oasis of solitude between metropolises. Santa Monica stretches along the Pacific Ocean, west of Los Angeles, and is the beachside icon of Southern California. Its famous pier, the Santa Monica Pier, hosts the historic carousel and the Pacific Park Ferris wheel, ideally marking the end of the legendary Route 66. Along the beach, cyclists and skaters glide down the Ocean Front Walk to Venice Beach, while the Third Street Promenade teems with shops, street performers and restaurants. The Montana Avenue district offers elegant boutiques, and sunsets over the ocean deliver the golden light that made the Californian coast famous. Between surf, palms and a relaxed atmosphere, Santa Monica embodies the carefree, luminous spirit of life on the Pacific.