As places to visit, small towns are useless in the extreme - there's nothing like stepping off a train and being able to see the entire universe of your day's possibilities (and not impressive possibilities, either) to make one despair of a day in the country. As places to live, in my very minimal experience, they're a little better. Cambridge hardly counts, perhaps, as I mostly shut myself up in its very limited world, and it's no more a town than a doghouse is an inn.
As places to be confined, they're quite on the luxurious side of things. In a few minutes I'd know a cell like the back of my hand; this place has taken me a few weeks. And, it should be added, occasionally decides to be damned peculiar.
Still, the phrase climbing the walls leaps to mind.