Some weekends ago I had the opportunity to go to Providence, Rhode Island. One of the advantages of living in New England is that we are really a cluster of little states together so it is easy to travel to other places within an hour. Yep, we are that close from Providence.
Since we spent the weekend over there I had some time to enjoy myself. The first day I did some walking around the city. For what I heard, they have worked really hard in cleaning up streets and laying out the city so people can enjoy it. There were many places that were within walking distance.
I started my tour at the R.I. Convention Center, they have a great service for tourists, there is someone explaining you how to find things, the best routes and plenty of maps to use!
My first stop was the Providence Mall. This place is huge (4 floors with a 5th for IMAX and food court). The layout is really nice and it has a walking tunnel that connects from the Westin/Convention Center all the way to the mall which is really neat if outside is snowing and cold and you feel like walking. Also, the view from the tunnel is just so nice, here you have it.
Then I walked to the State House that is a mini replica of the White House, isn’t it pretty? I couldn’t get in because it was Saturday and it was closed. Since this building is at the top of a hill, you have a nice view of the city and the avenues from there.
After that I started walking towards the RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) Museum, or so I thought so. After walking some blocks I realized I was going the wrong way so I was trying to read my map and a very nice lady helped me to find my way back to the museum.
I hadn’t been in a museum in a long time and I absolutely picked the right day since I got in for free! It seems that Bank of America gives you access to many museums for free the first weekend of every month. It finally paid off having an account with them!
The museum is huge, 6 floors! I enjoyed my visit so much! I loved the Egyptian section, I have always been intrigued by this culture and was reading that they used to bury their love ones with head statues that didn’t represent the facial characteristics of the person being buried but an ideal of them, so they just labeled the statue with the name and presto! No wonder why we have such a hard time trying to accept how we look like! Not even then human beings were satisfied with their appearance.
I tried to take some pictures of the art pieces but my camera doesn’t do a very good job with the lighting (or it may be is a user problem) but I did take a picture of the bathroom, isn’t it cool?
Then I found out that this school is one of the best of the country and from here many talented, world renowned artists have come out, have you heard of Chihuly?
When you leave the building and walk a couple of blocks you come across with the first Baptist Church in the country and again I couldn’t get in because it was Saturday!
After that, I kept walking along the Providence River and finally met my husband to get some good eats at a street called Thayer that is right by Brown University. This avenue is full of hip places to eat and students! Average age? Uhm maybe 25? I felt old here!
We also went to Federal Hill, considered the Little Italy for many years. We had a chance to try the best cannoli’s in town and some very good pizza.
I would definitely recommend anyone to visit Providence, R.I. if you have a chance, good foods, nice city and very nice people!
We are already making plans to come back in the Summer!
