Florence, Italy ranked world's top city 2014: CN Traveler

In the 2014 edition of the publication's annual Readers' Choice Awards, Florence edged past rivals like Charleston, South Carolina, and Budapest, Hungary, to achieve a razor-thin victory in the Top 25 Cities in the World index. In fact, after the US -- which landed the most cities on the list with five spots, Italy was the second most represented country, with Rome and Siena also cracking the ranking to give the country three spots. Austria and Thailand tied for third place with two cities each, Relaxnews reports. The results also suggest that travelers are particularly smitten by Southeast Asia, which is heavily represented at east Asia's expense: The only east Asian city to crack the list -- and in last place, at that -- is Kyoto, Japan. The remaining four Asian destinations hail from the sun-soaked Southeast: Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Europe snagged 10 spots, notably with performances from cities in the east, including Budapest, Hungary, Prague in the Czech Republic and Krakow, Poland. The list is conspicuously absent of British and French cities. More than a million votes were cast from 77,000 readers around the world. Here are the Top 25 Cities in the World , according to readers of CN Traveler magazine: