Meet the twins

It's an odd idea, twinning towns; two places in completely different parts of the world with no apparent relation to one another are linked, supposedly with the goal of fostering better international relations and cultural understanding. Ok, but is the process of choosing a twin completely arbitrary, as it seems to be? Bristol, for instance, has a whopping eight twins (actually that would make the lot nonuplets then, wouldn't it?).

But does Bristol have anything in common with its international siblings, or is it the black sheep of the family? Itchy set out to do a little internet-based research on a few of these foreign relatives.

Bordeaux, France: An obvious one: Bordeaux produces fine French wines, and Bristolians love to drink. Not necessarily fine French wine, but close enough.

Porto, Portugal: See above, but replace wine with port.

Segovia, Spain: It's warm and sunny there, and Bristol is one of the warmest, sunniest places in the UK. Bit of a stretch, yes, but there you are...

Guangzhou (formerly Canton), China: Both have their own dialect. True, Cantonese is a bit more widespread than Bristolian, but nevertheless people from both Guangzhou and Bristol may not be easily understood by people from other parts of their own country.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the other members of the family are Beira, Mozambique and Puerto Morazan, Nicaragua, both of which we've never heard of, and Hanover, Germany and Tbilisi, Georgia, which we have heard of but were too lazy to try and find any facts about (especially as we can't pronounce Tbilisi).

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