Columbia Named 17th Most Romantic City in America

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Stuff like this happens in Columbia every day! That's what makes it one of the most romantic cities in America.

​Some shocking news from Amazon.com: The most romantic city in Missouri is...Columbia. Yep. The home of the University of Missouri ranks 17th in the nation, behind such bastions of romance as Cincinnati; Knoxville, Tennessee; Gainesville, Florida and No. 1 Alexandria, Virginia.

Amazon based its rankings on very scientific criteria: per capita sales of romance novels, sex and relationship books, romantic comedy DVDs, Barry White CDs, and sexual wellness products for the month of January. (Just what is a "sexual wellness product" anyway?)

Columbia residents, according to the Columbia Daily Tribune, are pleased and flattered, but not surprised.

"I can see that," said Angie Hills who writes romance novels for Harlequin under the name Angie Daniels. "There are not a lot of things to do in Columbia in terms of zoos or other activities, so you have to do more things together, spend more romantic time together whether you're home watching movies or drinking wine."

Hills/Daniels believes this so strongly, she went so far as to set one of her novels, Hart & Soul, in Columbia.

For the record, the least romantic cities in the United States are El Monte, California; Paterson, New Jersey and Miami Gardens, Florida.