Providence is a great walking city — up and down the hills, along the river, and within a four-acre park in the center of town. For a wonderful meal, be sure to check our great dining recommendations. When you just can’t eat another bite, you’ll find plenty of historic sites, homes, world-class shopping venues, and outstanding museums and art galleries to while away the hours. Here are a few suggestions:
1. Federal Hill (“Little Italy”) greets visitors with an arched gateway marked by a bronze pinecone (an Italian symbol of abundance and hospitality). The main drag is Atwells Avenue, and finding a great snack or bracing espresso couldn’t be easier.
Providence Department of Art, Culture & Tourism, 401-421-7740
2. Cobblestoned Benefit Street is an eye-popping mile burgeoning with history and great architecture. Among all the jewels here, don’t miss the
Nightingale-Brown House, the Georgian-style mansion at number 357 (tours by appointment).
Providence Preservation Society, 401-831-7440; John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization, Brown University, 401-863-1177
3. Thayer Street, not far from Brown University, is the hub of great browsing and buying, with everything from consignment shops and clothing boutiques to antiques, cafes, and stationery, book, and music stores. For a big hit, Providence Place offers an enclosed mall featuring national department stores, including Nordstrom.
4. Providence is home to the world-renowned Rhode Island School of Design, which molds thousands of young artists in all art media. The school has it own museum, but don’t miss the many smaller galleries throughout town showing students’ (past and present) works, as well.
RISD Museum, 224 Benefit St. 401-454-6500
5. The culinary school at Johnson & Wales University offers one of the finest collections of kitchenware, appliances, cookbooks, menus, historic showpieces, and diner artifacts in the world.
Culinary Archives & Museum at Johnson & Wales University, 315 Harborside Blvd. 401-598-2805
Wonder how many people still around that remembers Gibsons? We used to go there when I was young 1945-1946. I worked as an Elevator operator in the Biltmore Hotel-it was great fun ,I think it was the Metropolitan Theater that had many of the then Famous Stars-they used to stay at the Hotel-most were very nice.I remember the Bijou theater on Sat we could go for 10 cents and see a Vaudivelle show,a double movie and the old News,and then usually to The White Tower for Hamburgers. I have not seen the new Providence-I have gone from the Train to the Providence Hotel were I have stayed,truly a lovely Hotel.I lived in East Providence and often walked Down City to save the Carfare,when we went Home we either walked or had enough Money to take a Trolley Car. It was an experience that was sometimes good and bad-I wouldn`t trade some of those Memories for anything. I now live in My Birth Home on Block Island and am starting My 28th year of working at the BI Chamber of Commerce. Anyone coming to BI Please come in ask for Me and I will tell you where to go Politely. I know Yankee has come to BI. By the way Yankee is my very favorite Magazine-it really is New England.