IT'S possible to get a good introduction to Boston, Massachusetts, by hopping into a taxi and asking the driver to conduct an impromptu tour of the city affectionately known as Beantown - named for a favourite colonial-era dish of baked beans cooked in molasses - which, as educationally inclined Singaporeans will know, is home to beacons of higher learning such as Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Of course, there's a lot more to Boston than a decent tertiary education, as my cab driver Frank - a genial second-
generation Irish-American with an inquisitive nature and a colourful past - informed me over the course of a half-hour ride through the heart of the city, which was first inhabited by Puritan settlers in 1630.
Little Italy
"It's the history, the old buildings, the charm of the North End," he says, referring to Little Italy, the neighbourhood with narrow cobblestone streets, heritage houses and a large variety of Italian eateries. North End's main artery is Hanover Street, off which is a road that leads to the oldest (1680) and most famous house in Boston, once home to Paul Revere, the American patriot who fought in the Revolutionary War. Frank drives past the quintessential scenes of urban American life - it's the height of summer, and there are people sitting on doorsteps, jogging along footpaths and tossing baseballs in the parks.
Frank proves to be a knowledgeable and eloquent guide, just as quick to name famous Bostonians - Louisa Alcott, Oliver Wendell Holmes, the Kennedy clan - as he is to ask about well-known Singaporeans. On the front seat next to him is a copy of The Financial Times and a pack of Lucky Strikes - he later informs me that he is attending Harvard's continuing education programme, is a card-carrying member of the Screen Actor's Guild (he has been an extra in a Martin Scorsese movie) and naturally enough, has no problem reeling off names of the restaurants that are reputed to have the best clam chowder in town.
Boston is one of those new world cities with a significant dose of old world charm. While it has established itself as a leading centre for education, industry, pharmaceuticals and health care, it is also serious about its history (with a starring role in the American Revolution), culture (the city is home to famous orchestras and important art collections) and professional sports teams (the Red Sox and Celtics are reigning champions in baseball and basketball respectively while the New England Patriots are a perennial powerhouse in American football).
The city also prides itself on famous sons made good in the entertainment world, such as the rock bands Boston and Aerosmith and actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Boston has also been immortalised on celluloid in several critically acclaimed films over the last few years, including Mystic River and The Departed. And fans of the TV sitcom Cheers still make the pilgrimage to the site of the actual working bar (at 84 Beacon Street, in case you're wondering) the long-running series was based on.
Downtown Boston - mere minutes across the Charles River from Cambridge, the neighbourhood that defines Boston's university life - is considered the cradle of American independence. Its historic main attraction, The Freedom Trail, is a four-km-long, red-painted path that runs along a route to sites that lie at the heart of the American Revolution. The trail (www.thefreedomtrail.org) leads from Boston Common to the USS Constitution or Old Ironsides, the three-masted naval frigate that was first launched in 1797 and emerged from various battles relatively unscathed.
Be sure to drop in at the Institute of Contemporary Art as you walk along the water's edge
New attractions
One of the more impressive new attractions in downtown Boston is the waterfront and seaport district, which in recent years has been the beneficiary of a massive redevelopment effort to beautify the area. Visitors are now encouraged to take a pleasant stroll along the harbour area fronting the financial district, with its many bank buildings, seafood restaurants and cultural sites on one side, and its modern yachts and vintage sailing ships moored along the waterfront wharves.
The distinctive Institute of Contemporary Art (www.icaboston.org), not far from the site of the Boston Tea Party (a famous 18th-century incident where American colonists protested against the British government by dumping crates of tea into the harbour), is representative of the modern face of Boston. It has a small permanent collection, holds contemporary art exhibitions regularly and is worth dropping in for a visit as you walk along the water's edge.
Not far from the harbour front is another famous Boston institution, the Faneuil Hall Marketplace - a cluster of early-19th-century buildings that includes the well-known Quincy Market - that now serves as a popular indoor-outdoor mall and food hall. The market was originally by the water's edge before economic growth led to a land reclamation project.
Shopper's paradise: The Quincy Market on Newbury Street, a haven of retail stores that are located in the 19th-century townhouses that line either side of the street
Quincy Market may be a standard tourist stop, but real shoppers head to Newbury Street in the Back Bay district, a haven of retail excess that is all the more noteworthy for its lack of ubiquitous shopping malls - most of the stores are located in 19th-century townhouses - or brownstones - that line either side of the street. The street is tree-lined, the pedestrian pavement is wide, and the stores are an eclectic mix of the big brand names and local independents. Slightly off the beaten path near Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox - but worth a detour nevertheless - is the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, an architectural gem built by a wealthy patron of the arts who had a great eye for quality works of art from various parts of the world. The museum, purpose-built at the turn of the 20th-century, looks relatively innocuous from the outside but inside, it is the perfect evocation of a 15th-century Venetian palazzo from the Italian Renaissance, complete with interior garden courtyard, marble columns, mosaic floor and antique items that have been worked into the design.
Painter on Newbury Street
Art showcase
The museum (www.gardner-museum.org) is a showcase for the 2,500 works of art collected by Gardner, including works by Rembrandt, Michaelangelo, Raphael and Degas. There are also works by Sargent, Whistler and Matisse plus assorted furniture, textiles, ceramics, manuscripts and Japanese screens from various periods - and all of them are displayed in a series of rooms as if in a private home setting. Empty frames still hang on some of the walls - evidence, unfortunately, of an infamous incident in 1990 in which two thieves disguised as policemen stole several works from two galleries, including paintings by Vermeer, Rembrandt and Degas. The heist is known as the biggest art theft in US history, with the works now worth an estimated US$300 million.
Of course, Boston is also the gateway to the great outdoors and scenic nearby destinations such as The Berkshires, Cape Cod and Minuteman National Park, not to mention historic towns such as Lexington, Concord and, thanks to the infamous Witch Trials of 1692 - plus a scary movie or two - Salem.
In a famous quote about the city, the theologian F B Zinckle wrote: "Massachusetts has been the wheel within New England, and Boston the wheel within Massachusetts. Boston, therefore, is often called the 'hub of the world', since it has been the source and fountain of the ideas that have reared and made America." It may not be the centre of the universe these days, but it does have a definite appeal - enough to prompt modern-day visitors to take a fascinating journey of discovery to Old Beantown.
This article is published in The Business Times on August 16, 2008.
