Boston has over half a million inhabitants and is the largest of New England’s cities. As its most important commercial and financial centre, the city on the Charles River has always played an historic role and was the cradle of Independence.

In the centre of Boston, Copley Square features the Trinity Church, which contrasts with the modern Hancock Tower that dominates the skyline. Park Street Church was where, in 1829, William Garrison gave his first anti-slavery speech. In the adjacent Granary Burial Ground some of America’s most famous sons are buried, such as John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Paul Revere.

Beacon Hill has hardly changed over the past 150 years, an architectural gem with narrow, winding cobbled streets and even today the wrought ironwork of its balconies and banisters indicate that this is one of Boston’s most sought after areas.

In front of the Old South Meeting House, in 1729 thousands of Boston’s inhabitants protested against the English king and the taxes that he had imposed upon them. The Old State House is Boston’s oldest public building. In 1776, it was here that the Declaration of Independence was read out for the first time.

The Plimouth Plantation is a reconstruction of the Pilgrim Fathers’ original settlement and is one of the jewels of the many living museums in the USA. To the south west of Boston there is the museum town of Old Sturbridge Village in which historic buildings from all over the country have been lovingly replicated.. Village inhabitants in historical costumes walk and talk in wide open spaces and act out the scenes of daily life as it was two centuries ago.

New England is the traditional face of America and the heart of America’s past.