I've needed to write this post for ages, my favorite places to go in Boston, to give to people who are going up there for the first time. These are just places that I love to go, and not at all "What tourists should see in Boston" definitive kind of list. Heavily slanted towards food, because I love eating.
- Mike's Pastry for cannollis and other Italian desserts
- Toscanini's (One in Central Square, and one in Harvard Square) for great ice cream flavors
- Newbury and Boylston Street shopping
- Trident Bookstore and Cafe on Newbury St
- A walk down Charles St (great little shops, and there's an excellent pizza store along it called Upper Crust), then walking up to Louisburg Square
- Boston Public Garden
- Walk along the Esplanade, which is a waterfront park. It runs from the Longfellow Bridge to Harvard Bridge. Actually, you can keep going down to the BU bridge, switch to the Cambridge side, and complete the loop on Storrow Drive to Longfellow bridge, but that's LOOONG. Along the Esplanade, you can see the Hatch Shell and watch all the sailboats in the Charles River Basin.
- walk down the Infinite Corridor at MIT: go to 77 Mass Ave. walk up the stairs. walk straight ahead, and all the way down the hallway. If you don't know the MIT campus well, you might then want to turn around and go back the way you came, or risk getting kind of lost
- Walk down Commonwealth Avenue in the evening on a sunny day
- Walk Central Square to Harvard Square
- In Harvard Square, walk around the Harvard campus a bit
- Also in Harvard Square, go to the Fogg Art Museum (free on Saturday mornings until noon)
- Go to Peet's coffeehouse in Harvard Square
- Go to the great little gourmet store across the street from the Curious George store in Harvard Square. I think it might be called Cardulo's
- In Back Bay, go to the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum. My favorite art museum in the world.
