Seek out a quiet moment

Narcisse Noir, 1927, bronze and marble, by Katharine Lane. The sculpture is part of A Studio of Her Own: Women Artists in Boston 1870 - 1940, currently on display at the Museum of Fine Arts. JOHN NORDELL / STAFF

I'm not a big fan of Boston. In my decade of living in Beantown, I've never quite learned to appreciate that particularly Yankee mixture of rudeness, impatience, aggression (particularly behind the wheel of a car) and provincialism. If my wife and I didn't love our jobs so much, we'd be out of here in a New York minute.

But Boston does have its fabulous moments. The Fourth of July celebration down by the Charles River. Watching a Red Sox game at Fenway. Taking in a Boston Pops concert on the Esplanade in the summertime. First Night festivities on New Year's Eve.

My favorite way, however, to spend time in Boston is to take an afternoon and stroll the galleries of the Museum of Fine Arts. I could spend hours contemplating Sargent's "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit," a painting of four young sisters, or Renoir's "Dance at Bougival." Liam, my 8 year-old son, and I love to visit the Egyptian exhibit, with one of the best collection of mummies and artifacts this side of Cairo. The MFA is one of the finest art museums in the world and you'll never go wrong taking one of your days in Boston to visit it.

And here's a insider's tip. You'll find the museum's greatest unknown treasure in the back - a small Zen garden that offers an oasis of calm in the middle of Boston. It's easy to forget time here. (Also, a similar oasis of silence awaits you at the Boston Public Library. Just go to the courtyard.)

Institutions like the MFA make Boston tolerable. The winters are too cold and snowy, the summers are too hot and humid, and the people are not friendly. But the life of the mind is very much alive in Boston and between the universities and the museums, like the MFA, there is more than enough to do to take your mind off other aspects of the city.

— by Tom Regan

'Bertha Foster' garden - Dave Hauck	Chat up someone, anyone - Jim Bencivenga	Beantown music scene - J. Johnson
What's foreign found local - Susan Leach	How to walk in Boston - Judy Lowe	Just take a walk - Greg Lamb
Delegates unite - walk! - Greg Palmer	Where to go for some seafood - Daigo Fujiwara	Seek out a quiet moment - Tom Regan
'To think that I saw it on Newbury St.!' - Christina McCarroll	Some antiquarian bookstores of Boston - Tom Toth