Boston

Boston is America's oldest major city and its most European — a compact, walkable city of red-brick Federal and Victorian architecture on a peninsula in Massachusetts Bay, steeped in Revolutionary War history and home to Harvard, MIT and an exceptional concentration of universities that give it a year-round intellectual and cultural vitality. The Freedom Trail, a 2.5-mile walking route marked by a red line through the city, connects 16 sites of American Revolutionary significance: Paul Revere's House, the Old North Church, the Boston Common, the State House with its gilded dome, the Old South Meeting House and the Boston Massacre Site. The USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides"), berthed in the Navy Yard in Charlestown, is the world's oldest commissioned naval warship still afloat. The Battle of Bunker Hill monument is nearby. The Museum of Fine Arts Boston is one of America's finest — particularly strong in American, Impressionist and Egyptian art. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (a Venetian palazzo built around a courtyard with a superb eclectic collection) is one of the world's most unusual art museums. The Isabella Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain (free) is magnificent in spring. Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox (baseball's most hallowed ground), offers tours year-round. New England seafood — clam chowder, lobster rolls, oysters from Wellfleet — is exceptional.