In many stories about Cleopatra, it makes it look like a cosmopolitan city, much more sophisticated than Rome. Is this true? Were there any other ancient cities that were not exactly tourist destinations, but great places to live.
I'm not sure about more sophisticated and cosmopolitan than Rome, but Alexandria was the center of the highly important trade carried in the Indian Ocean, and there is literary documentation of a highly multiethnic community of merchants. Beyond that, it was a center of Greek intellectual life and probably the second largest city in the Empire after Rome.
Is there something you are specifically curious about?