300 years after the infamous Boston tea party, the English, and indeed all foreigners are warmly welcomed to America's most intellectual city. Home of the 400 year old Harvard University, and perhaps the US city with the strongest English traditions, Boston is New England's pre-eminent city, a modern metropolis with a far-reaching historical and commercial maritime legacy. Of all the excellent natural ports in New England, Boston's location on the Charles river is the best of all, and the city has thrived as a commercial centre since its founding in the 1620's. The North End, Boston's oldest neighborhood and home to much of the city's Italian population is a maze of windy streets and quaint coffeshops centred around Salem Street. Among the remnants of Boston's early days are Copp's Hill burying ground, the tiny clapboard Paul Revere house, built in 1680 - the oldest house in Boston; and the 1723 Old North Church. The historic suburb of Faneuil Hall and the adjacent Quincy Market form one of the country's first mixed-use commercial developments, dating from the 1740s.

Boston's most affluent neighborhood, Beacon Hill is nearby, in the heart of the city, easily indentified by the gilt dome of the Massachusetts State House and the undulating rows of brick houses that surround it. The 1798 State House is still in use today and some of the finest headstone carvings in New England are on view at the Old Granary Burying Ground, where Paul Revere, John Hancock and Samuel Adams rest in peace. Other historical buildings of note on 'the hill' include the Old State House, from the balcony of which Bostonians first heard the Declaration of Independence read; and the Old South Meeting House, where a 1774 grievance session about a new tax lead to the Boston tea party.

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