Visit Philadelphia

This is where it all begins: Independence National Historical Park gathers, within a few blocks, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell pavilion, Congress Hall and the outline of Benjamin Franklin's house, while his grave lies in Christ Church Burial Ground. Plan a full morning and book your Independence Hall time slot ahead from April to August, when school groups pour in. Old City also has galleries and cafés in former warehouses, ten minutes on foot from the Delaware River waterfront.

South of Independence Mall, Society Hill holds one of the largest concentrations of 18th- and 19th-century brick houses in the United States, with wooden shutters, brass knockers and cobbled lanes such as Delancey Street. One hour of wandering is enough to see it, passing through Washington Square, home to the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier. The area is residential and quiet at night, which makes it a good base within walking distance of the whole historic center.

The modern heart of the city revolves around City Hall, topped by a statue of William Penn, and Rittenhouse Square, one of the five squares in the original 1682 plan. Shops, restaurants and wine bars cluster on Walnut Street and nearby blocks. To the east, Reading Terminal Market has gathered dozens of stalls under a former train shed since 1893: go on a weekday before 11:30 am to dodge the lunch crush. Jefferson Station sits right below for trains to the airport.

Modeled on the Champs-Élysées, this diagonal boulevard of about 1.6 km links City Hall to the hilltop art museum whose steps were made famous by the film Rocky. It also serves the Barnes Foundation, the Rodin Museum and the Franklin Institute. Set aside a full day, two if you love painting. Behind the museum, the Fairmount neighborhood leads to the former Eastern State prison and to the Schuylkill banks, lined by a trail that runs toward Fairmount Park.

South of South Street, rows of workers' houses are home to the historic Italian-American community and, more recently, to Mexican and Vietnamese families. The open-air 9th Street Italian Market is one of the oldest in the country: come in the morning, Tuesday to Sunday. At the Passyunk Avenue intersection, two rival stands have fought over the best cheesesteak title for decades, but East Passyunk, a few blocks away, has a more varied restaurant scene. Allow half a day, ideally heading back up toward the South Street murals.

Former fishing and factory districts north of downtown, Fishtown and Northern Liberties have turned within ten to fifteen years into a trendy address: craft breweries, coffee roasters, music venues and restaurants set in warehouses. Frankford Avenue concentrates most of the action, fifteen minutes from Center City on the Market-Frankford subway line. It is a neighborhood for going out at night rather than spending the day: one evening is enough, preferably on a weekend, when venues host live shows.

Across the Schuylkill, University City hosts the University of Pennsylvania, founded at Benjamin Franklin's initiative, and Drexel University. Penn's campus can be crossed on foot in an hour, with its Gothic Revival buildings and its archaeology and anthropology museum, known for its Egyptian and Maya collections. 30th Street Station, where Amtrak trains leave for New York or the nation's capital, sits on the edge of the district, making it a handy stop before continuing an East Coast road trip across the United States.