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The best part of a visit to Faneuil Hall Marketplace is that you never know who – or what – you will see. “Benjamin Franklin” might administer a quick colonial history quiz to an unsuspecting child, a juggler might ask another to participate in a performance, or a street musician might stick the mic in a child’s hand for a singsong. (see Faneuil Hall Marketplace)

Closed to vehicular traffic on summer Sundays, Cambridge’s twisting, riverside Memorial Drive becomes a blur of rollerbladers, baby strollers, and joggers.

Ether was first used for surgical anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846.

If Boston were to have a mascot, it would most likely sport white feathers and a graceful, arching neck. The swan boats have been a Public Garden (see Swan Boats) fixture since the first fleet glided onto the garden’s shimmering pond in 1877.

The restrained Italian Renaissance exterior of this 1900 concert hall barely hints at the acoustic perfection of the interior hall as designed by Harvard physics professor Walter Clement Sabine. Home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the hall’s 2,361 seats are usually sold out for their extensive season of classical concerts, as well as for the lighter orchestral fare of the Boston Pops (see Symphony Hall).

The storied home of the internationally renowned Boston Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Hall is one of the world’s most acoustically perfect concert venues. Its recent 100th anniversary season brought such notables as Tony Bennett and André Previn to town. The BSO also frequently hosts sought-after guest conductors and soloists.

Harking back to the South End’s days as a Middle Eastern immigrant neighborhood, this grocery sells southern and eastern Mediterranean essentials, from preserved lemons to rare Moroccan argan oil.

T. T.’s is a rock club in the tradition of New York’s C.B.G.B.: small, dingy, and incredibly loud. Expect to sweat, expect to leave with ringing ears, and above all, expect to rock out.

This is the best place in town for real northern Mexican food, plus it has the most complete line of Mexican beers in town. The owner plays in a mariachi band at weekends.

This new motor inn is a five-minute drive from downtown Boston (for non-drivers, there’s a shuttle to the nearest “T”). Spacious rooms and suites have tasteful decor and include dual phone lines, 50-channel cable TV, and high-speed Internet connections.