I love this, glad @siggy47 highlighted it.

I've been to a number of countries where I've been struck by the flavor of the literary culture. My favorite was when I was in Amsterdam a long time ago, and a guy who looked like he must have been homeless, or close to it, had a bunch of old books set out on a blanket. I wound up buying a hundred year-old copy of Polybius, in Greek, with a Latin facing translation. Really beautiful book. The guy talked excitedly about it. I felt like, in the moment, we were brothers.

My favorite book culture city is Buenos Aires, but I have no anecdote as pithy to illustrate it.