New York, Paris and Tokyo may be on your travel bucket list, but there are plenty of cities that don’t get enough credit and are well worth a visit. Underrated cities have their benefits — they can often be less crowded, more affordable, and just as interesting.

As a travel journalist for over 20 years, I recently asked 175 travel enthusiasts, experts and agents about what they think is the most underrated city to visit. The most popular answer was surprising: Bologna, Italy. “Bologna is very up-and-coming and poised to be the new hot Italian city to visit,” says Tom Marchant, founder of luxury traveling company Black Tomato. “And as the home of Bolognese pasta, it’s a foodie mecca.”