1. Museum of Fine Arts

One of the most largest fine arts museums in the country, the MFA is especially renowned for its collections of French Impressionism and of ancient Egyptian and Nubian art and artifacts. Its Asian art holdings are said to be the largest in the United States (see Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

2. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

This Fenway museum, in a faux Venetian palace, represents the exquisite personal tastes of its founder, Isabella Stewart Gardner, who was one of the country’s premier art collectors at the end of the 19th century (see Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum).

3. Fenway Park

4 Jersey St • 617 267 1700 for tickets, 617 226 6666 for tours • Tours year-round: 9am–5pm daily (from 10am in winter; last tour 3 hours before game time) • Adm • www.redsox.com

Built in 1912, the home field of the Boston Red Sox is the oldest surviving park in major league baseball, and aficionados insist that it’s also the finest. An odd-shaped parcel of land gives the park quirky features, such as the high, green-painted wall in left field, affectionately known as “the Green Monster.” Although previous owners threatened to abandon Fenway, the current ones have enlarged the park to accommodate more loyal Sox fans. Behind-the-scenes tours include areas normally closed to the public, like the dugouts and private boxes.

Fenway Park baseball park

4. Symphony Hall

301 Massachusetts Ave • 617 266 1492 • www.bso.org

The restrained, elegant Italian Renaissance exterior of this 1900 concert hall barely hints at what is considered to be the acoustic perfection of the interior hall. Home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the hall’s 2,300-plus seats are usually sold out for their classical concerts, as well as for the lighter Boston Pops (see Symphony Hall).

Performance at Symphony Hall

5. Back Bay Fens

Bounded by Park Dr & The Fenway

This lush ribbon of grassland, marshes, and stream banks follows Muddy River and forms one link in the Emerald Necklace of parks (see Founders’ Memorial). The enclosed James P. Kelleher Rose Garden in the center of the Fens offers a perfect spot for quiet contemplation. A path runs from Kenmore Square to the museums and galleries on Huntington Avenue, which makes a pleasant shortcut through the Fens. Best by daylight.

Entrance to the Back Bay Fens

6. Jordan Hall

This concert hall at the New England Conservatory of Music opened in 1903 and underwent an $8.2 million restoration in 1995. Musicians often praise its acoustics, heralding Jordan as “the Stradivarius of concert halls.” Hundreds of free classical concerts are performed at this National Historic Landmark hall every year (see Jordan Hall).

Magnificent interior of Jordan Hall

7. Boston University

• Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center; 771 Commonwealth Ave; 617 353 3696; exhibit rooms open 9am–4pm Mon–Fri; adm • Boston Playwrights’ Theatre; 949 Commonwealth Ave; 866 811 4111; season runs Oct–Apr • www.bu.edu

Founded as a Methodist Seminary in 1839, Boston University was chartered as a university in 1869. Today it enrolls approximately 30,000 students from all 50 states and some 125 countries. The scattered colleges and schools were consolidated at the Charles River Campus in 1966. Both sides of Commonwealth Avenue are lined with distinctive university buildings and sculptures. The Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center is big on the memorabilia of show business figures, displayed on a rotating basis. Artifacts include Gene Kelly’s Oscar and a number of Bette Davis’s film scripts. It also exhibits selections from its holdings of rare manuscripts and books. The Boston Playwrights’ Theatre was founded by the late Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott in 1981 to help develop new plays. A season highlight is the day-long Boston Theater Marathon of 50 ten-minute plays.

A play at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre

8. Warren Anatomical Museum

10 Shattuck St • 617 432 6196 • Open 9am–5pm Mon–Fri

Established in 1847 from the private holdings of Dr. John Collins Warren, this museum contains the former anatomical teaching collections of the Harvard Medical School, including clinical examples of rare deformities and diseases. Among the excellent displays are several delicate and poignant skeletons of stillborn conjoined twins. The unusual collections are still used for medical education.

9. Massachusetts College of Art and Design Galleries

621 Huntington Ave • 617 879 7337 • Closed for renovation until 2020 • www.massart.edu

The Paine and Bakalar galleries in the South Building of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design mount some of Boston’s most dynamic exhibitions of contemporary visual art. It is the only independent state-supported art college in the US and exhibitions tend to emphasize avant-garde experimentation as well as social commentary and documentary.

10. Kenmore Square

Largely dominated by Boston University, Kenmore Square is now being transformed from a student ghetto into an extension of upmarket Back Bay, losing some of its funky character but gaining élan in the process. As the public transportation gateway to Fenway Park, the square swarms with baseball fans and sidewalk vendors, rather than students, on game days. The most prominent landmark of the square is the CITGO sign, its more than 9,000 ft (2,743 m) of LEDs pulsing red, white, and blue from dusk until midnight. Time magazine designated this sign an “objet d’heart” because it was so beloved by Bostonians that they prevented its dismantling in 1983.

Kenmore Square, with its CITGO sign