1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (14 page)

Eight Millennia of Art and Artifacts

Boston, Massachusetts

Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts is one of the nation’s best, with collections that include some of the most beloved and recognizable works of art in the Western world. The galleries capture the history of human creativity
, beginning with objects produced around 6000
B.C.
and extending to the present day. Along the way they touch on works in various media from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome; Renaissance masterworks; American furnishings and decorative silver; and the Impressionists, including one of the largest collections of Monets (more than 40) outside France. Images such as Degas dancers and Gilbert Stuart portraits feel familiar; Native American baskets and works of Chinese calligraphy lead visitors to think about art from unfamiliar perspectives.

The museum’s best-known holdings include iconic American works such as John Singleton Copley’s
Watson and the Shark,
Gilbert Stuart’s
George Washington
and
Martha Washington,
and Childe Hassam’s
Boston Common at Twilight,
and European masterpieces such as Renoir’s
Dance at Bougival
and Gauguin’s
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
The museum’s eight curatorial areas range from textiles and fashion arts to art of Asia, Oceania, and Africa, including the finest collection of Japanese art outside Japan.

The MFA is home to so many pieces—more than 450,000 objects—that the sheer variety can be a bit overwhelming. Happily, the museum helps visitors find their way, scheduling tours (included in the admission price), distributing maps, and offering pointers on their website. There’s a lot to be said for simply wandering around, trusting in serendipity to lead you to anything from a diorama of the Acropolis to a 12th-century musical instrument.

The museum’s design tells its own story. Murals by John Singer Sargent decorate the 1909 rotunda at the Huntington Avenue
entrance. The granite West Wing, an I.M. Pei design, opened in 1981. A massive expansion project includes a new American Wing and a glass-enclosed courtyard designed by Lord Norman Foster of Foster and Partners, London, who designed the Great Court at the British Museum and the Sackler Galleries at the Royal Academy of Arts. The new space is scheduled to open in 2010.

W
HERE:
465 Huntington Ave. Tel 617-267-9300;
www.mfa.org.
B
EST TIMES:
Wed, voluntary contribution after 4
P.M.
; 1st Fri of each month from 5:30 to 9:30
P.M
. for cocktails and live music.

A Taste of the Old Country in a Colonial Setting

Boston, Massachusetts

One of the oldest parts of Boston, the North End is the city’s best-known Italian neighborhood and one of the nation’s most famous Italian American communities. After visiting the Paul Revere House and
the Old North Church on the Freedom Trail (see p. 42), wander along the narrow streets, many of them lined with redbrick tenement buildings. For over a century, beginning in the mid-1800s during the Irish famines, this area teemed with recently arrived immigrants. One of the most famous North End natives was Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, a granddaughter of Irish immigrants, daughter of Boston’s Mayor John F. Fitzgerald, and mother of President John F. Kennedy. Her baptism (in 1890) and funeral (in 1995) both took place at St. Stephen’s Church on Hanover Street. Across the street from St. Stephen’s is Cyrus Dallin’s equestrian statue of Paul Revere; every April on Patriots Day, a reenactor dressed as Revere mounts a horse in front of the statue and begins his ride to Lexington and Concord (see p. 57).

Following the Irish to the North End were immigrants from Eastern Europe, Portugal, and finally, around the turn of the century, Italy. This is where you’ll find some of Boston’s best Italian restaurants, including the epitome of a neighborhood pizza place, Pizzeria Regina. Founded in 1926, this classic serves thin-crust pizza baked in a brick oven and, ideally, topped with house-made Italian sausage. Or just stop for a respite—an espresso or cappuccino and an Italian pastry or a scoop of gelato. Caffè Vittoria, the oldest Italian caffè in Boston, is another favorite with the locals, a bustling spot that attracts a lively mix of regulars and tourists.

You can also make the North End an evening of more formal dining without compromising its authenticity. An uncontested favorite is Mamma Maria, whose specialties are northern Italian cuisine (notably pasta creations) and romance. The elegant town house is a popular place for marriage proposals, and the osso buco is worth its weight in diamond solitaires. If you prefer your jewelry plastic and your dough deep-fried, visit the North End in the summer. It’s the season for feasts, otherwise known as street fairs; many of the generations-old social clubs that sponsor them bear the names of saints, and so do the festivals. The Fisherman’s Feast, which dates to 1911, kicks off with the blessing of the fishing waters and usually features a big-name entertainer (Frankie Avalon appeared in 2005) of Italian American heritage. Just don’t overindulge in the sausage and peppers and
sugar-dusted zeppoles—when the band strikes up traditional Italian tunes, you may find yourelf dancing in the street. Everyone’s Italian tonight.
Tutti siamo italiani!

P
IZZERIA
R
EGINA:
Tel 617-227-0765;
www.pizzeriaregina.com
.
Cost:
dinner $10.
C
AFFÈ
V
ITTORIA:
Tel 617-227-7606;
www.vittoriacaffe.com
.
Cost:
$7.
M
AMMA
M
ARIA:
Tel 617-523-0077;
www.mammamaria.com.
Cost:
dinner $55.
B
EST TIMES:
Patriots Day (3rd Mon in Apr) for reenactments and commemorations; weekends in late July and Aug for feasts; mid-Aug for 4-day Fisherman’s Feast (
www.fishermansfeast.com
).

Flowers, Trees, Swans, and Ducks in the Heart of the City

Boston, Massachusetts

Time seems to slow down in the Public Garden. Laid out in 1837, this was America’s first public botanical garden. It abounds with flowerbeds and ornamental trees as well as fountains and famous birds. Find a shaded
bench and take it all in, starting with the legendary Swan Boats propelled by college students working the pedals that make them go. The Swan Boats and one of the world’s smallest suspension bridges dominate the lagoon at the center of the Public Garden, which encloses a delightfully miscellaneous statuary collection as well as four live swans. Near the corner of Beacon and Charles streets,
Make Way for Ducklings
is a string of tiny bronze waterfowl eternally following their mother toward the lagoon, as they did in Robert McCloskey’s book of the same name. Near the exit onto Commonwealth Avenue, George Washington gazes down from the saddle of his landmark equestrian statue. And on that historical note, imagine this: The Public Garden sits on a landfill site that was once the “sea” part of “One if by land, two if by sea.”

The Public Garden is also the front yard of two of the best hotels in all New England. The Taj Boston, until recently the Ritz-Carlton, opened in 1927 and occupies a special niche befitting its age. Decorated in traditional style and outfitted with all the latest perks (call the front desk for the “Fireplace Butler”), it’s the one truly legendary Boston hotel. Part of that legend is afternoon tea, a genteel and tasty ritual accompanied by live harp music, and part is the hotel’s location on Newbury Street, known for the city’s best shopping.

Robert Paget designed the Swan Boats in the 1870s.

It has a worthy competitor in the Four Seasons, which combines over-the-top luxury with a gorgeous setting and noteworthy dining. The Public Garden is a constant presence; it’s visible through huge windows from the lobby, restaurants, and swimming pool. The concierge will even give quack-happy youngsters duck food to take across the street. Aujourd’hui, the second-floor restaurant,
offers sublime modern French cuisine. The genteel rivalry between the two hotels shows no signs of flagging, but the Ritz-Carlton has an ace in the hole: Louis the trumpeter swan, the hero of E. B. White’s delightful children’s novel
The Trumpet of the Swan,
stayed there when he was working in the Public Garden lagoon.

W
HERE:
Back Bay.
S
WAN
B
OATS:
Tel 617-522-1966;
www.swanboats.com.
When:
late Apr–mid-Sept.
T
AJ
B
OSTON:
Tel 877-482-5267 or 617-536-5700, 617-912-3355 (dining reservations);
www.tajhotels.com/boston.
Cost:
from $395; afternoon tea $25.
T
HE
F
OUR
S
EASONS:
Tel 800-819-5053 or 617-338-4400, 617-351-2037 (Aujourd’hui);
www.fourseasons.com.
Cost:
from $425; dinner $65.
B
EST TIMES:
early Apr–mid-Oct for flowers in bloom; look for tulips in Apr, roses in June.

A College Community on Boston’s “Left Bank”

Cambridge, Massachusetts

No visit to Boston is complete without a side trip to “The People’s Republic of Cambridge,” the lively and unabashedly intellectual city across the Charles River. Founded in 1630, it is home to two heavyweight seats of
learning, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

Exuding gentility and timeless academia, Harvard University is the very heart of Cambridge. Life here revolves around Harvard Square and the tides of students, professors, and visitors who have flocked here from all over the world since Harvard was founded in 1636.

In a walk around Harvard Yard, the oldest part of the lovely campus, you’ll see nearly three centuries’ worth of architecture. The oldest building, Massachusetts Hall (1720), holds the university president’s office and housing for first-year students. Sever Hall (1880) is a masterpiece by 19th-century American architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Nearby Widener Library (1913) bears the name of a Harvard graduate who died in the sinking of the
Titanic.
The Fogg Art Museum appears to be just another redbrick building but contains a delightful surprise: an Italian Renaissance–style stone courtyard. The Fogg is the best known of the university’s three art museums, which together hold more than 200,000 objects; the depth and breadth of the collections (expect everything from Dutch Renaissance to Kandinksy) make this complex one of the country’s foremost university art museums and a place you’ll want to spend your afternoon.

Harvard Square is anything but academic. It’s a chic, upscale area with interesting boutiques, restaurants, and bistros. The posh Charles Hotel, a peaceful retreat steps away
from the commotion of the square, is contemporary in style, with custom Shaker-style furnishings in the spacious accommodations, excellent restaurants, a jazz club, an expansive spa, and a huge fitness center. A branch of the Legal Sea Foods restaurant chain faces the hotel courtyard. Internationally renowned for the quality and freshness of its fish, which the company processes in its own plant on the Boston waterfront, Legal Sea Foods originated in East Cambridge as a fish market in 1950; that location is long gone, but there are two always busy branches in Cambridge and seven in Boston. Legal’s fresh, chunky clam chowder is a must-sample, but so is the steamed or baked lobster (as big as you can afford), with a perfect rendition of Boston cream pie for dessert.