Yeah, agreed. I lived in CT for four years, and I loved it and there are many beautiful places, but the college towns are not really high on that list, as a rule. And I do like many of the college towns (including Middletown), the loveliest places in the state are not those towns (unless there’s a college in the Litchfield Hills no one told me about…).
(OK, Groton is pretty. And New London is cute. But none of them are spectacular.)