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Since the 1950s the Old Town School has brought world and homegrown folk music performers to Chicago. Its new home in Lincoln Square opened in 1998 with a concert by Joni Mitchell, though you’re more likely to catch a women’s ensemble from Mali and contemporary folkies such as Patty Larkin.

Though off-the-beaten club path, the family-owned Rosa’s is beloved citywide for its support of local artists such as blues harpist Sugar Blue and the genuine welcome by its owners, Tony Mangiullo and his mother Rosa. The latter sometimes cooks for the patrons of this simple tavern.

Since 1959, Chicago’s famed Second City comedy troupe has launched such comic lights as John Belushi, Mike Myers, and Bill Murray. Actors improvize their lines in a series of skits connected by a current events theme on the cabaret-style main stage. Reservations are a must.

The El tracks are an apt symbol of hard-working Chicago, and they feature significantly in the romantic comedy While You Were Sleeping (1995). Sandra Bullock plays an El station clerk who falls in love with a handsome commuter. He tumbles off the platform, Bullock saves his life, and comedy and romance ensue.

Founded in 1974 in a church basement, Steppenwolf has gained acclaim based on the fame of its ensemble, which includes actor John Malkovich. Though the company has moved upscale to a specially built theater in Lincoln Park, it is still distinguished by raw emotion and edgy productions.

While visiting orchestras, lecturers, and jazz artists feature on its program, this center is first and foremost the home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra directed by Daniel Barenboim. The complex holds a main stage, recital hall, and a bar-restaurant named Rhapsody.

The consummate high school comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) stars Matthew Broderick, who skips school and takes his girlfriend (Mia Sara) and best friend (Paul Ruck) on an action-packed Chicago day. At the Art Institute, Broderick and Sara kiss in front of a window designed by Chagall, while Ruck stares intensely at A Sunday on La Grande Jatte–1884.

Wrongly accused and convicted of murder, Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) dodges the authorities led by Tommy Lee Jones to prove his innocence in The Fugitive (1993). He winds up in a pulse-pounding chase through this grand hotel onto its roof, down its elevator shaft, and into the hotel’s laundry room.

Elliott Ness (Kevin Costner) brings down Chicago gangster Al Capone (Robert DeNiro) in the true story The Untouchables (1987). In one unforgettable scene, a shoot-out on a Union Station staircase causes a mother to lose her grip on her baby carriage, which bounces in slow motion down the stairs, saved at the last moment by Ness’s partner.

In Road to Perdition (2002) Tom Hanks is Michael Sullivan, an Irish gangster living in 1930s Chicago. After his wife and young son are murdered, he flees town with his older son. In seeking a safe refuge, they enter a hotel, the exterior of which is the beautiful Wrigley Building. However, the interior scenes were actually filmed at The Hilton Chicago.