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Latinos and Jamaica Plain hipsters rub shoulders at the Milky Way for the dancing, the latest local live bands, the cosmopolitans, and bowling under the dim blue Christmas lights.

Rooms run the gamut from tiny to palatial in this elegant and swanky oasis close to bustling Faneuil Hall Marketplace (see Faneuil Hall Marketplace). Some suites even have their own jacuzzis.

New England’s oldest comic bookstore keeps its faithful customers happy with an extensive back-issue selection, rare imports, and all the latest indie comics.

MIT students’ favorite watering hole boasts one of the city’s most original decorative concepts. How many bars display the day’s menu items and on-tap beers on a periodic table, serve salad dressing in a test tube, or claim Einstein as a patron saint?

House specialties here include rich ricotta pie and nougat made on the premises, as well as chocolate truffles from Italy and delicate Florentines. Modern makes a thinner cannoli shell than Mike’s.

Morse is principally a South End fish monger. But they also cook fish to order for great sandwiches or fried fish dinners at a relative pittance. There are a few tables in this cheery shop, or they’ll pack dinner for a picnic in nearby Blackstone Park. No lobster.

Based in the African Meeting House (the oldest extant black church in the US) and the adjoining Abiel Smith School (the nation’s first publicly funded grammar school for African-American children) – the MAAH offers a look into the daily life of free, pre-Civil War African-Americans. The meeting house was a political and religious center for Boston’s African-American community and it was here that abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison delivered anti-slavery addresses in the mid-19th century. The museum has successfully preserved their legacy and that of countless others through education workshops, exhibitions, and special events.

One of the most comprehensive 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 US (see Museum of Fine Arts).

The MFA, Boston’s undisputed queen of the visual arts scene, boasts some of the most extensive collections of Japanese, ancient Egyptian, and Impressionist works of art in the world. Van Gogh’s Houses at Auvers (1890;) is just one of many treasures in the European Art collection (see Museum of Fine Arts).