My #SUSI first week: Part III

Have I mentioned that time flies here? Well, it does! We are entering our third week here and I am still blogging about the first. Sorry guys and gals but things have been so intense. I promise to update you more often. Remember about the building storytelling I mentioned in my first blog post? During the Boston trip we experienced a pretty cool and informative tour led by Professor Max Grinnell aka The Urbanologist.

Professor Grinnell walked as through the historical and cultural secrets of Boston following some of the stops of the famous Freedom Trail and of the Walk of the Sea. We begun our tour by visiting the harbour, as "the sea is Boston's front door". I was really impressed by the old customs buildings and by the marvellous maps that accompanied our walk. Those maps were created in collaboration with Norman B. Leventhal Map Center hosted at Boston Public Library. Norman Leventhal, businessman, philanthropist and collector of historical maps partnered with Boston Public Library creating the aforementioned Map Center enabling access to 250.000 maps and atlases. Next time I will be in Boston I will make sure to visit!

Another thing that impressed me in Boston was the beautiful architecture. You can find really interesting buildings, ranging from different styles mixing modern ones with more colonial and historical. But it surprised me also the fact that some of the most historical buildings have now been turned into commercial stores, like Old Corner Bookstore. 

Continuing our tour, we had the chance to see the first public school in America, home of the Old City Hall where 38 Boston mayors served their terms of office and where one can find The Democratic Donkey and the Republican Elephant (it can't be more relevant thinking of the upcoming presidential elections).

Cemeteries are also cool places to visit in Boston as you will discover apart from historical information and more exciting information such as trivia about Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. Can you see the letter A below?

I am sure I've mentioned a million times how historical Boston is, and I have used this word over 10 times in this post. Let me add political as well. One of the most influential families in the US and global history, the Kennendys, routed from the heart of Massachusetts. We had the chance to enter the lobby of the- I will repeat the word again- historical Omni Parker House, where JFK announced his bid for Congress in 1946, as well as where he proposed to Jacqueline Bouvier and had his bachelor party in 1953.

Speaking of politics I am really enjoying the way public spaces are used in the US and I will come back to this topic in my future posts. In Boston, Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall are still the main public spaces for Bostonians to meet, discuss, perform, eat, read, play, shop.

Filled with all that food for thought, some food before departing was also necessary!

So bye-bye Boston and thanks- and literally- for all the fish :)