If it’s happening you’ll find it in the weekly magazine Boston Phoenix. The Eight Days A Week Entertainment Section lists jazz, blues, theater, poetry readings, gallery showings, museum exhibits and much more.
Do as the Victorians did and stroll down meandering paths, under magnificent old trees, and around remarkable, ornate Victorian statuary in Forest Hills Cemetery, one of America’s first rural garden cemeteries. Located in Jamaica Plain, just minutes outside of downtown Boston, the grounds, also a wildlife sanctuary and botanical garden, are beautiful, and the literary giants buried there impressive: poets e.e. cummings and Anne Sexton, writer Ezra Pound, playwright Eugene O’Neill. Or, visit America’s first garden cemetery, Mt. Auburn Cemetery, outside of Cambridge. A tour of its memorials leaves no doubt as to Boston’s stature in the intellectual world: painter Winslow Homer; poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; writer Oliver Wendell Holmes; psychologist B. F. Skinner; inventor Buckminster Fuller. Woven throughout the hilly landscape are lovely gardens with over 5000 trees and thousands of manicured plants.
Take a peek into the opulent lifestyle of Boston’s 19th century “Brahmin” aristocracy on house tours on Beacon Hill. Call each house in advance for admission dates and times as they vary.The Nichols House, designed in 1804 by Charles Bulfinch, is filled with several generations of Nichols family possessions. The1859 Gibson House is a journey into a Victorian time capsule. The Prescott House, built in 1808, was remodeled in 1870 in the neo-Colonial style popular at that time.
Spend time in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for a range of experiences: the art – Titian’s The Rape of Europa, works by Michelangelo and Matisse, and significant Old Masters and Italian Renaissance masterpieces are intimately displayed; the architecture – delicate Italianate details evoke a Venetian Renaissance palazzo; the gardens – an interior, glass-covered manicured courtyard is a charming respite; the food – a delightful restaurant is open for lunch; the music - on certain weekends, there is chamber music too!
For a complete change of pace, take the T-line to Stony Brook for a tour the Samuel Adams Brewery, complete with product sampling.
For the adventuresome, Boston’s many self-guided tours appeal to interests as diverse as Boston itself: the Irish Heritage Trail, the Woman’s Heritage Trail or the Boston Immigrant Heritage Trail. Inquire about specialty walking tours: the savory, aromatic North End Italian Market Tour; the prose and poetry of the Literary Trail Tour, or the once a year Secret Gardens of Cambridge or Hidden Garden of Beacon Hill tours.
Chocoholics, Boston is your town! America’s first chocolate mill produced Baker’s chocolate in 1780 in nearby Dorchester, a century before the Hershey bar. L. A. Burdick’s in Cambridge has the best hot chocolate imaginable and Rosie’s Bakery in Cambridge and Boston had fabulous chocolate delicacies. Drizzled, dripped, swirled; in mousse, tortes and cakes, Boston’s chocolate creations are a fine end to any meal. On Saturdays from January through April, don’t miss the sumptuous sampling of chocolate desserts on Old Town Trolley Tour ® of Boston’s Chocolate Tour.
Hidden gems for sweets and other tasty things include JP Licks in Jamaica Plain for home-made ice-cream and desserts made on site; The Cheese Shop in Wellesley Village on Central Street has the best array of cheese and crackers from all over the world. A must when in the North End is Bandini & Sons, an authentic Italian grocery. Near Quincy Market, jostle and haggle in the busy, noisy Haymarket, Boston’s great outdoor market, where you can buy fruit, vegetable and fish just off the boat.
Discover real finds at Fort Point Channel Artists Studios: one-of-a kind lamps, paintings, sculptures, fixtures, and more. Where else but Gargoyles to find an eclectic array of stained glass windows, statures, mouldings, tiles, marble and wood pieces salvaged from old churches and buildings. On Newbury Street, stop in Gallery Naga for unusual work of New England artists for painting, furniture and sculpture.
Boston is a place of history; Cambridge of intellect. While in Cambridge, save time to discover the out-of-the-ordinary. You can be a kid again, tinkering with nostalgic gadgets in Joie de Vivre. Marvel at the delicate “Glass Flowers,” 4000 glass botanical models hand blown in a collaborative effort by a German father and son between 1887 and 1936 on display in the Harvard Botanical Museum. A visit to the lower level of the Harvard Science Center will uncover a fascinating array of vintage scientific precision instruments, some dating to 1450, on display in the Collection of Historic Scientific Instruments. For lovers of meter and verse, a visit to the Grolier Poetry Book Shop is a must. Find antiquarian maps, atlases and nautical charts on display in the Harvard Map Collection in the Pusey Library, on Harvard Yard; uncover artifacts from ancient excavations in the Near East in the Semitic Museum.
Every local has a favorite restaurant - some tried and true; others, new, create a lot of excitement. Totally hip 33 Restaurant and Lounge is a trendy restaurant with great food and the best cocktail bar in Boston. Step into the late 60s and early 70s at Lucky’s; for the best oceanfront dining, take a ½ hour drive to Swampscott to the Red Rock Bistro, high on a cliff with the Boston skyline on the horizon.