I'd agree that Cambridge is the intellectual capital of the world, but I think you may have the wrong Cambridge.
I'm biased, of course. I was lucky enough to be a student at the other Cambridge. My old college (Trinity) boasts more Nobel Prize winners than the whole of France.
Cambridge, England, like Cambridge Mass, is blessed with a climate bad enough that no-one would go there for the weather.
The English Cambridge is a delightfully compact city, with the University at its heart. You can go almost anywhere on foot or bicycle. It's also cool to wander through a courtyard unchanged since Isaac Newton knew it.
What message does the city send? Perhaps that you are mortal, but that learning is eternal.