July 2005

If you visit Philadelphia during the first week of July, you'll have a front-row seat for the parade, fireworks, and other festivities that make up America's birthday party in the nation's first capital. Then again, whenever you visit, you're in for a taste of the rich history that peppers the city streets with a sense of the past. Yet the past is only a warm-up: Philadelphia is an active city that keeps reinventing itself with a resounding modern performance hall and a home run of a new ballpark.

You can run, inline skate, or stroll the paths of one of the world's largest urban parks, or bike the banks of the Schuylkill River. Philadelphia may be large, but it's easy to navigate on foot.

Where to Stay
Philadelphia boasts a number of outstanding boutique hotels tucked into the central city neighborhoods within easy walking distance of almost everything. Here are two choice options:

The conveniently located Alexander Inn (215-923-3535 or 877-253-9466, www.alexanderinn.com), including expanded continental breakfast) caters to discriminating clientele with 48 smartly decorated rooms two blocks from Avenue of the Arts, a short stroll to Independence Mall, or steps from Antiques Row on Pine Street. The Latham Hotel (215-563-7474 or 877-528-4261, www.lathamhotel.com), on Rittenhouse Row has revamped nicely since the days when it housed guests of the Mike Douglas Show, which taped nearby. The 139 cozy rooms feature wireless Internet; packages include valet parking and continental breakfast.

Explore the City of Brotherly Love, neighborhood by neighborhood, for a kaleidoscope of sights and sounds--and a whole lot of taste.

Click on a neighborhood to begin.

Food and travel writers Patricia Harris and David Lyon are coauthors of The Meaning of Food, the companion volume to the PBS series of the same name.