New England itinerary: exploring historic homes, parks, and gardens

10-day itinerary in New England

In the New England, there is a world of gardens in historic residences and museums, in towns and villages, in nature reserves and protected areas. You can stroll through arboreta and greenhouses, along the coast and in open fields and meadows, in wooded areas and luxury resorts. In this northeastern region of the United States, there are native, rare, and exotic plants, flowers, bulbs, and trees, well-kept lawns, fantastic color combinations, ornamental structures, and pathways. There are secret gardens, tropical gardens, orchid gardens and those with small cottages, vegetable and stone and hillside gardens, Japanese-style gardens with stunning locations.

The largest landscape collection of native plants in the northeastern United States is found here, as is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the country. Autumn is ideal to discover the small and large natural treasures of New England, kissed by the kaleidoscopic atmospheres of Indian Summer colors. It is suggested to embark on the trip no later than the first half of October to catch the autumnal palette and colors that fade from north to south of the region over a time span starting from mid-September and continuing until the end of October. Obviously in the northern part of New England the “Indian Summer” starts earlier, while in the southern part it can be enjoyed even in early November. Our itinerary in New England begins in Boston. Don’t forget to prepare the travel documents for the United States.

1st stop: BOSTON / arrival and walk in the Boston Public Garden

The Boston Public Garden is in the heart of the city, adjacent to the oldest public park in America, the Boston Common. Together these two parks form the northern side of the Emerald Necklace, the “Emerald Necklace,” a long strip of parks designed by the famous American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The Public Garden connects to the south with Boylston Street, to the west with Arlington Street, to the north with Beacon Street and to the east with Charles Street which separates the Public Garden from the Boston Common. The park contains numerous plants and a pond of over one and a half hectares on which from April to the end of October swan-shaped boats – Swan Boat – famous Boston attraction where guided tours take place on the lake. Another feature is the numerous bronze statues that adorn the park, including Make Way for Ducklings (Make Way for Ducklings) tribute to a famous children’s tale. 

BOSTON: visit to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Arnold Arboretum

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boston is the beautiful house-museum at Fenway Court designed by Isabella Stewart Gardner, Boston magnate and billionaire, who collected precious works over many years of travel in Europe and Asia. The Venetian Renaissance style residence houses paintings by El Greco, Titian, Vermeer, Sargent, just to mention a few painters. There are over 2,500 pieces of art, including the first Matisse painting acquired by an American museum. Gardner was a controversial and unconventional figure in late 19th and early 20th century Boston, as she associated with enlightened personalities, eccentric artists, was a muse and patron, as well as the hostess of a salon “outside the Puritan norms.” In 2012 a new wing of the museum designed by architect Renzo Piano: an addition to the Boston Fenway Cultural District, where the famous Museum of Fine Arts is also located.

The day continues with a visit to the ARNOLD ARBORETUM in the beautiful Jamaica Plain neighborhood – 107 hectares that are part of the park system Emerald Necklace of Boston designed in the late 1800s. The arboretum is the largest research center on plants with about 14,000 trees belonging to 5,000 classifications. The Visitor Center has maps and brochures for self-guided tours, exhibitions on the Arboretum and its plants, seasonal displays, a shop with books and educational articles for children and adults, activities for children, and restrooms. The Arboretum is open year-round from dawn to dusk with free access. It is right in this garden that the carriage scene of the walk in Paris from the film Little Women (2019) directed by Greta Gerwig.

In Boston you should dedicate at least three days to explore its numerous squares, ancient streets, neighborhoods featuring always finely decorated flowerbeds, Beacon Hill, Back Bay or the South End. The Commonwealth Avenue is a succession of magnolias and delightful period buildings, dotted with meticulously maintained gardens. It is a surprise in every season of the year. You must not miss the walk along the innovative Rose Kennedy Greenway that runs alongside the Harbor Walk, on the harbor front. This winding long green area is a most interesting and inviting mix of various plantings, interspersed with vegetable gardens, decorated with artistic and luminous installations, benches and lampposts, fountains and water features. It is the perfect urban solution that replaces road lanes for vehicles (now all underground) allowing citizens and visitors a “friendly” walk, as pleasant as possible during spring bloom or in autumn.

2nd stop: coast north of Boston, northern side of Massachusetts, Ipswich area

Visit to the farm Castle Hill on the Crane Estate

Castle Hill refers to a “drumlin” (a particular type of hill shaped like a whale’s back or a “donkey’s back”) of 66 hectares surrounded by sea and salt marsh or also to the villa located on the hill. Both are part of the Crane Estate of 849 acres located at Argilla Road a Ipswich, in Massachusetts. The former summer residence of Mr. Richard T. Crane, Jr., includes a historic mansion, 21 buildings, and a landscape overlooking Ipswich Bay, along the north coast of Boston.

The property’s name comes from the headland of the homonymous Ipswich in England, the place from which the English colonists who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony came. Centuries before becoming the lavish summer residence of one of America’s wealthiest families, Castle Hill was known to the native Indians who called it “Agawam“, referring to the abundant fishing. In the early 1880s, J. B. Brown transformed Castle Hill Farm from an agricultural estate into a true “gentleman’s farm”, improving the roads, the park, and raising the rural house into an elegant cottage which today is The Inn at Castle Hill. It was on this estate that many scenes of the 1987 film The Witches of Eastwick directed by George Miller, based on the novel of the same name by John Updike starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon e Michelle Pfeiffer.

Richard T. Crane, Jr. purchased the property in 1910 and transformed Castle Hill as an example of the “American Country Place Era” with its farm and owned buildings, park and gardens and several natural areas. The Crane family commissioned work from some of the most famous architects of residences and gardens of the time. The first residence built at the top of Castle Hill, an Italian Renaissance villa revival, was designed by Shepley, Rutan e Coolidge, later replaced in 1928 by the 59-room Stuart style mansion designed by architect David Adler. The residence is furnished with period furniture. Castle Hill also hosts a wide variety of game typical of the forests of northeastern Massachusetts. Deer, foxes, wild turkeys, and a multitude of songbirds can be seen from the numerous trails of Castle Hill. Additionally, Castle Hill is home to many pairs of great horned owls and red-tailed hawks that nest here. Thanks to its location on the Atlantic Ocean and close to the beach Crane Beach, rare species such as vultures and migratory hawks and also, occasionally, the bald eagle can be sighted. It is suggested to have lunch at The Inn at Castle Hill, making sure to book in advance. 

Visit to the Zimmerman House

About 70 km north you reach the state of New Hampshire and the town of Manchester. Upon arrival: visit to the Zimmerman House, a historic home located at 223 Heather Street and built in 1951; it is the first of two houses in New Hampshire designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and one of the models ofPrairie School in the Northeastern United States. The house is now owned by the famous museum Currier Museum of Art, which offers tours of the building listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The home was commissioned by  Dr. Isadore e Lucille Zimmerman.

Wright redesigned the house around a rock placed right at the entrance. Its design extended to include all the interior furnishings, the furniture as well as the mailbox, and also specified the arrangement of plants for the garden. The visit starts from the Museum and continues with the house, making sure to have booked the visit in advance. There are also private tours that require a reservation at least two weeks in advance.

3rd stage in Cornish, New Hampshire

(135 km)

Cornish

The home in Cornish belonged to the American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and includes delightful gardens and walking trails. Cornish is a village of about 1,600 inhabitants, along the banks of the Connecticut River in Sullivan County. The covered bridges of Cornish are a real record as no other place in New Hampshire can boast so many. The most notable is the Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge , which stretches across both banks of the Connecticut River and is the longest two-span covered bridge in the world, built in 1866 at the cost of 9,000 dollars: 140 meters, a true connection between New Hampshire e and Vermont. Not to be missed are the Blacksmith Shop Covered Bridge, the Blow-Me-Down Covered Bridge and the  Dingleton Hill Covered Bridge.

Visit to the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site

In 1763 the English colonists not only gave the village the name of Sir Samuel Cornish, an admiral of the Royal Navy; they settled there using the riverbanks as a transport point for the shipbuilding timber that was floated down the waterways. In 1885 the renowned sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens settled there in 1885 to take walks and escape the summer heat of New York. Augustus Saint-Gaudens is known for the bronze statue of Diana, once atop the old Madison Square Garden. His Sherman Memorial shines in the southeast corner of Central Park, and his Peter Cooper Monument sits firmly outside Cooper Union. He lived in a grand home atop a hill surrounded by his studio, gardens, and acres of forest. Today the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site offers garden tours with 150 sculptures and works by Saint-Gaudens. The natural landscape itself is a work of art and merits walks and nature explorations along the trails. Artists and friends followed Saint-Gaudens; among them was the painter and illustrator Maxfield Parrish, who designed and built his residence in this area, Oaks.

Cornish Art Colony

The whole area became the center of the well-known Cornish Art Colony, one of the first artist colonies in the United States and, similarly to others in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts e Dublin in New Hampshire, the natural scenic beauty, the climate and relative isolation intellectually stimulated and mutually encouraged the variety of resident artists. The first wave of artists arrived before 1895 and was mostly painters; among the first George de Forest Brush e Thomas Dewing.

Others followed: the painter Henry O. Walker, the architect, painter and engraver Charles Platt; the painter and engraver Stephen Parrish with his son the illustrator and painter Maxfield, the painter and art critic Kenyon Cox. All purchased land and built residences there in the 1890s. Some, among whom the famous sculptor Daniel Chester French, the painter John White Alexander, the sculptor Paul Manship came for some summers like President Woodrow Wilson, who made the writer Winston Churchill‘s home, author of “Harlakenden House“, (burned down in 1923) the Summer White House from 1913 to 1915. The colony fostered an interrelation among various arts: painting, sculpture, decoration, illustration, architecture, landscape design, novels, journalism, theater, poetry, criticism, essays, composition, music, from Boston and from New York. In 1905 it was estimated that about 40 families resided there for most of the year and some for the entire year. The arrival in the colony occurred in three phases: artists and sculptors towards the late 1880s and early 1890s; writers in the 1890s, then lawyers, doctors, politicians, and wealthy individuals after 1905.

The gardens of Cornish

The gardens were a common denominator of the colony. Extensive were those of Thomas Dewing e Stephen Parrish, which went hand-in-hand with the landscape design of Charles Platt and his protégés Ellen Shipman e Rose Nichols. Stephen Parrish fell in love with the pastoral beauty of Cornish, visited together with landscape architect Charles Platt, his student with a house in Cornish. In 1893, Stephen purchased 18 acres of land next to Platt and built a house he called Northcote. He spent the next ten years working on the garden, which was considered by many the most beautiful garden of all the artists’ colony gardens. It was precisely because of the beauty of the countryside as well as the artists’ homes and gardens that Stephen Parrish was enchanted by Cornish, and his famous son – Maxfield – followed in his father’s footsteps a few years later, building a house, a studio, and a fenced garden. The houses were closely related to the gardens; indoor and outdoor spaces framed the views. As in Tuscany, building in Cornish was a challenge but the genius lay precisely in understanding the landscape.

From 1893 to 1910 Stephen kept a detailed diary about his garden, including notes on the climate, birds, daily activities, garden purchases, plant lists (including those that thrived) and newspaper clippings about gardens. Generous information was given on painted canvases and visits he received. When his granddaughter Anne Bogardus Parrish also died in 1966, she left the precious diary to Dartmouth College. Northcote is the best documented garden in all of Cornish and not only did it attract attention, it was photographed and described in House and Garden, The Century Magazine and Country Life in America, and was also published in two important garden volumes, American Gardens by Guy Lowell and Beautiful Gardens in America by Louise Shelton.

Artists and patrons in Cornish built a number of architecturally notable homes. Most of the Cornish Colony heritage is found within a 5-kilometer radius, in the northeastern corner of Cornish and southwest of Plainfield. The historic buildings of the Cornish Colony and the structures in the villages of Plainfield e Cornish include residences, barns, carriage houses, studios, ancillary facilities and gardens, social institutions and public buildings. About ten properties in Cornish e Plainfield are attributed to the well-known architect and colony resident, Charles Platt, who blended American influences with those of Italian villas. Beyond the interventions of Platt following the style of Italian villas, residences built in this period generally maintain stylistic influences such as Colonial Revival, and Shingle e Craftsman. At the end of the visit, a nice walk in Cornish is worthwhile. This idyllic corner of New Hampshire would at least be worth an overnight stay to fully enjoy the pastoral beauty of the landscapes.

4th stop: towards Williamstown

Continuation of the journey towards the hills of the Berkshire in Western Massachusetts, location Williamstown (157 km). Arrival and visit to the splendid The Clark Museum. This art treasure chest is visited and one strolls through the immense park where sculptures stand. The Clarks – wealthy magnates of the Berkshire Region – donated the vast private collection of art, paintings and sculptures, to the town of Williamstown, a small gem in the northern part of the Berkshire Region, in the western Massachusetts. The delightful museum and art research center Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, often simply referred to as the Clark Art Institute o The Clark, was built by an heir of Singer, the “barons” of sewing machines, and well hidden in this bucolic area to protect 19th-century and Italian Renaissance works in case New York was bombed by the Germans during World War II. The French art collection includes Impressionists – featuring countless canvases by Renoir enough to be the largest collection in the USA –, the renowned ballerinas of Degas, as well as paintings and sculptures by American artists, canvases by John Singer Sargent, English silverware, etc. In June 2008 the museum and campus expanded with the addition of the Stone Hill Center, an approximately three-thousand-square-meter wing designed by Tadao Andō. This incredible museum is set on about 52 acres of garden grounds, a unique harmony with the building’s architecture, and it invites visitors to take beautiful walks in the woods, interspersed with views of the bucolic landscapes. The museum features a café with excellent snacks.

5th Stop: heading to Lenox in southern Berkshire

(km. 44) and then Stockbridge, MA.

Lenox

A Lenox was home to the famous American writer, the first female Pulitzer Prize-winning author Pulitzer Prize, Edith Wharton, author of numerous famous novels now also recognized in Italy (notably the Martin Scorsese film based on the book of the same name, “The Age of Innocence”). Her residence – The Mount – is a beautiful country house in Italian Renaissance style, which the writer designed along with the lands and the entire estate, considering it her “first true home.” The Mount celebrated its centenary in 2002 after a complete restoration of the exterior and interior. Wharton was not only an important writer but also became famous for the art of decoration, both for houses and gardens, breaking away from old dark and heavy Victorian-era design and decoration canons and fully embracing light and Italian-style gardens. She authored essays on this subject that revolutionized the style of her era and made her a genuine “trend-setter.” She lived in Italy and traveled extensively across Europe. She was one of the female representatives of the Bostonian “intelligentsia” of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Respected by artists and writers such as Henry James, who used to spend short stays here. The layout of the residence with its vast park is spectacular, as are the historic gardens. Within the historic home there is a restaurant-bar with a wonderful terrace. Reservation is suggested for dining on-site.

Proceed to Stockbridge which hides a variety of natural and artistic treasures. (10 km)

Stockbridge

Visit Naumkeag former country estate of the well-known New York City lawyer, Joseph Hodges Choate, located on Prospect Hill Road, Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Three decades dedicated to planting and landscaping gifts this splendid “cottage garden” of the New England. Climb every step of the fountain staircase lined with white birches and explore all the special gardens, from rose gardens to evergreens. The visit to the home and gardens requires at least two hours. There is a cafeteria that offers exquisite sandwiches, salads, drinks, and snacks. Those wishing to enjoy a lovely picnic on the grass can also find blankets available. With the beautiful house, magnificent gardens, and panoramic views, Naumkeag is the quintessence of a Gilded Age country estate. This architectural work of art is also a family residence. Joseph Choate, a celebrated 19th-century lawyer, commissioned the architectural firm McKim, Mead, & White to design his 44-room cottage,Naumkeag, which would serve as a summer vacation residence for three successive generations of Choates. With its view of Monument Mountain, its wonderful collection of gardens created by Joseph Choates’ daughter, Miss Mabel Choate and by Fletcher Steele over 30 years, its original works of art and the home’s “shingle” style, Naumkeag offers an unforgettable experience to visitors. You walk through the beautiful gardens:  Afternoon Garden, Tree Peony Terrace, Rose Garden, Evergreen Garden, Chinese Garden to find the joyful and creative spirit of Miss Choate and Mr. Steele. Bequeathed in 1958 – complete with furnishings, gardening tools, and the barn – Naumkeag is a National Historic Landmark that offers a direct connection to the historical environment of the Berkshires region.Moreover, it is a place where, similarly to the Choate family, one feels surrounded by beauty and renewal.

Stockbridge is also well known for the most important collection of works by the illustrator Norman Rockwell.Norman Rockwell Museum celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019. The NRM holds the largest collection of original paintings by Norman Rockwell, who depicted scenes of American provincial life that became famous worldwide. An American classic that takes us back to moments of life in the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s. He was an illustrator and lived in Stockbridge on the hills of the Berkshire. The covers he created for the Saturday Evening Post are objects of worship. The Museum stands in a wide green valley, surrounded by the hills and woods of western Massachusetts. Thanks to its main sponsor Steven Spielberg, this Museum is decidedly one of the State’s top attractions, also for its modern yet classic white architecture in “New England” style. At the same location, visitors can see the studio of Norman Rockwell, preserved just as the painter left it (this is open from May to October). At the end of this visit, there is time for a walk along Main Street among shops and art galleries, followed by dinner and overnight stay at The Red Lion Inn, Stockbridge.

6th stop: heading to Hartford, capital of Connecticut

located on the Connecticut River in the center of the State. (118 km)

Once the city of Hartford, capital of Connecticut, was the richest city in America. In fact, it was for decades after the Civil War, in the second half of the nineteenth century, when it also became a center of lively intellectual, religious, and progressive life. It also had numerous industries, such as silk and arms manufacturing, and especially publishing. And it was precisely thanks to the latter that the city founded in 1635 by about a hundred dissenting Puritan pilgrims attracted two of the most important authors in American literary history: Harriet Beecher Stowe e Mark Twain.

The Reverend Lyman Beecher was an important Congregationalist church minister known for his sermons against slavery. His daughter Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the famous novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” while her brother, Reverend Henry Ward Beecher opposed slavery and supported the temperance movement and women’s suffrage. Harriet’s sister, Harriet, Isabella Beecher Hooker was one of the founders of the women’s rights movement. Harriet Beecher Stowe was already famous when she bought the cream-colored villa, where she spent the rest of her life from 1864 until her death in 1896. You can visit the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center with the family’s historic home.

Next to it stands another equally charming historic home: the Mark Twain House and Museum which was the residence of Samuel Langhorne Clemens and his family from 1874 to 1891. It was designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter and built in American Gothic style. The author of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” had gone to Hartford in 1871 to visit his publisher. He stayed at the home of one of Harriet’s sisters, in one of the villas of Nook Farm, and fell in love with the area. A year later he bought four acres of land just a few hundred meters from Harriet’s home, and two years later moved into his 15-room, 5-bath villa (all equipped with running hot water). Here he wrote the works Adventures of Huckleberry Finn e A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The house tour takes at least 1 hour, but it is recommended to add another hour to complete the visit with the museum exhibits and the film by Ken Burns, Mark Twain. After the visit and a snack, proceed towards the small state of Rhode Island to reach the town of Newport. Arrival, walk, dinner by the sea and overnight stay.

7th stop: Mansion of the Gilded Age in Newport

It is a leap back in time: we can play the part of an extra in the film “The Great Gatsby” and roam curiously through the beautiful residences, the Mansions of Newport, once holiday cottages for America’s aristocratic families, the Vanderbilt, the Astor, the Belmont. That “innocent” world that lived in luxury, eccentricities, and looked to Europe for inspiration in arts, palaces and our natural “savoir vivre.” The first stop in Newport is at the Beechwood Mansion of the Astors: once inside the mansion, you will find yourself in 1861. The discovery of the Rich & Famous continues. You visit the Cornelius Vanderbilt Mansion, The Breakers, and that of Edward Berwind, The Elms, then that of William K. Vanderbilt, The Marble House.

The The Breakers Mansion – I Cavalloni – is the most opulent: it was built in just two years, from 1893 to 1895 and has 70 rooms. One of the idiosyncrasies of the residence is the sinks in the bathrooms: they have four taps, two for hot and cold running water and two for hot and cold sea water. Upstairs you can visit the children’s and guests’ rooms. The Elms is instead smaller: it was inhabited starting from 1901 and the Berwinds used to host parties with over 200 guests. The beautiful library located in the North Alcove is made of dark wood and redwood panels: the large fireplace is decorated with plants. Don’t miss a nice outdoor walk, admiring the exteriors, parks, avenues, and gardens of these wealthy residences: you will have a complete sense of the opulence of the Gilded Age of Newport. You will walk along the sea in autumn and breathe the Newport breeze that made it famous as the capital of sailors and gave birth to the America’s Cup. But above all, be sure to stroll along the CLIFF WALK, which runs along the east shore of Newport. It is a walking path about five kilometers long, created in 1975, which offers an unparalleled view of the sea, along the cliffs and the natural beauty of the coast: wildflowers, birds, the sight of the Mansions. There are eight resting points along the route from north to south, starting at First Beach on Memorial Boulevard.

In the late afternoon the journey continues to reach Cape Cod in Massachusetts and stay in one of its 16 charming seaside villages. Arrival in Sandwich, dinner and overnight stay (139 Km) at the Daniel Webster Inn.

8th stage: Cape Cod and its gardens

Cape Cod

Cape Cod holds a special place in the hearts and minds of Americans. Families from Boston, New England, or New York make it a favorite refuge during weekends to escape the pressures of city life. It is the place, in fact, where the Kennedy clan created their own “compound,” in the village of Hyannis. Cape Cod is a harmony of nature and simplicity, aesthetic taste and genuineness. At Cape Cod there are fields near the Atlantic Ocean which in autumn are flooded and provide a tart characteristic fruit, a red berry: the American cranberry, indispensable on the plate with the turkey at Thanksgiving Dinner, it is also one of the major agricultural products exported by Massachusetts worldwide. At Cape Cod, the tradition of fishing and fish markets in small coastal villages survives. The sea, the boats and the catch are among the most typical representations of this peninsula. The images of this island are idyllic visions, not by chance they have been immortalized in writings and paintings by artists such as Thoreau a Edward Hopper.

In autumn it lights up with bright light and colors thanks to the Fall Foliage, and the cranberry fields – the red berry – release reddish tones during the annual harvest, which offers one of the most incredible natural spectacles. Writers and painters already in the 1800s frequented Cape Cod. Thoreau wrote a book dedicating pages to three long walks on the Atlantic beaches from Nauset a Provincetown. Nature observation, solitary lives of local people and oyster fishermen. But this is perhaps what inspired famous American writers at the Cape: from Tennessee Williams, to John dos Passos.

Heritage Museums & Gardens

Visit to the Heritage Museums & Gardens, Sandwich – Here are 40 acres of plants, bulbs, splendid flowers, and well-maintained lawns. It is an extraordinary environment offering unbeatable horticulture, garden design, outdoor discovery, exhibitions of magnificent collections and vibrant colors all year round. The region’s moderate temperatures and rainfall allow over 500 varieties to be cultivated in the different garden areas, including the Windmill Garden with its spectacular blooms. Workshops, seminars, and activities are available throughout the year. Visitors from all over the world also come to admire three rooms hosting special and permanent exhibitions: the American Folk Art, a vintage carousel, antique cars inside a replica of a classic Shaker barn in Massachusetts and temporary exhibits. The gardens feature a collection of thousands of rhododendrons, including the famous Dexter variety blooming from late May through mid-June. The grounds also include the Old East Mill, a mill built in Orleans, Massachusetts in the 1800s, extensively restored between 1999 and 2000. In 2002, a maze designed by Marty Cain, one of the top maze designers in North America, was added. There is also the Hart Family Maze Garden and the Cape Cod Hydrangea Garden. The Special Exhibitions Gallery is a replica of a Revolutionary building, known as The Temple of Virtue a New Windsor, New York, the very location where George Washington awarded the first Purple Heart to a wounded soldier. The day continues with a visit to another historic garden: Heritage Museums & Gardens, in Falmouth – Magnificent 1878 estate restored, belonging to the Beebe family and is one of the few remaining examples in the Northeast of Queen Anne style architecture. The two-year restoration of the two magnificent gardens was completed in 2013; the mansion and gardens are open to the public for visits from April to the end of October. Walks on the estate are offered on the first and third Sundays of the month during the opening season. Guided tours by professors and pre-scheduled are available year-round for groups of 5 or more people. Access is paid. Continuation – after the visit – to the next stop at Cape Cod, arriving in Provincetown at the northern tip of the peninsula. Walk, dinner, and overnight in Provincetown.

9th stage: Cape Cod National Seashore Park

In autumn, until mid-October – the Province Lands Visitor Center of the National Park is also open. On the side of the visit to the National Park on the Sand Dunes, we highly recommend a 4×4 vehicle excursion to access the sand dunes and marine nature of the park, the Race Point Lighthouse Tour.

Cape Cod National Seashore

The approximately 18,000 hectares included in the Cape Cod National Seashore in about 65 kilometers of land and sea, from Chatham to Provincetown, constitute one of the largest coastal reserves in the United States. Scientists predict that in five thousand years the coasts of Cape Cod will disappear due to erosion and rising ocean water levels. The Cape is a glacial deposit that constantly changes shape due to the movement of winds and water, which sculpt the sand dunes along the seashores. The cliff at Marconi Wireless Station near Wellfleet has been visibly eroding since Guglielmo Marconi built his tower in 1901. The Great Island, once a whaler hunting ground, is now connected to the peninsula. The entire Cape Cod peninsula is losing about one meter of coastline per year due to erosion.

It is one of the classic areas constantly subjected to the whims of the Atlantic Ocean. The 1978 storm, Hurricane Bob in 1991, and the great storms of 1993 radically changed the landscape of Cape Cod National Seashore. There are architectures important to the Cape tradition inside the park: lighthouses, coast guard stations, as well as historic houses that have always been part of the Cape’s charm. It is a park that must be visited at least once in a lifetime!

Created on August 7, 1961, by President John F. Kennedy, the Cape Cod National Seashore extends for about 60 km of coastline, including the towns of Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans e Chatham: all of undeniable charm and architectural beauty. Native Americans began using this land at least 9,000 years ago. In 1620 a group of Pilgrim Fathers, English religious separatists, explored the area to settle the colony. Cape Cod offered many benefits, but after months of searching they decided to settle in Plymouth. In 1902 Guglielmo Marconi built one of the two North American wireless stations at South Wellfleet. On January 18, 1903, the first Morse code communication between Europe and the Atlantic was carried out through the Cape Cod station. The first program in the world for sea rescue and relief was born at the Cape, which became the U. S. Life Saving Service in 1872, a service as popular as the U. S. Cavalry thanks to its valiant lifesavers. The park includes beaches, sandy cliffs that form dunes, sand hollows, tide pools and plateaus, salt marshes and soft grassy lands. Inland there are ponds, natural fresh water pools, and cranberry fields. The vegetation offers pines and bushes of oaks and herbaceous sand plants. Common are beach berries and plums, bayberry and beach plum. Twenty-five are the protected wildlife species. The park is accessed from two Visitor Centers, which also include amphitheaters for historical and nature documentaries, and from here the ranger sets off for excursions and guided tours. At the Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham – open all year round – there is also a cinema room that screens a series of historical and nature films, splendid documentaries highlighting different themes related to the Park’s history and the peninsula’s ecosystem, which is only 18,000 years old since the glacial era. It is the center’s prerogative to organize a calendar including talks by historians and writers, lighthouse tours – legendary watchtowers of the Massachusetts coast – exploration of sand dunes and their distinctive habitat, walks on the long sandy beaches, visits to historic houses and the lifestyle of Cape Codders, as well as discovering curiosities about the marine mammal world: seals and whales, an integral part of Cape Cod’s wildlife heritage. Lunch is free on the Main Street in Provincetown before departing for the next Cape village, Brewster. (51 km)

Brewster

Founded in 1656, Brewster today hosts not only splendid beaches but also old sea captains’ houses – many converted into inns – and other historic buildings, antique shops, and some of the best restaurants in Cape Cod. The historic structures are open to the public. The Brewster Historical Society is a great starting point and is housed in a 1799 house, Elijah Cobb House on Lower Road. The historical society also manages the 1795 mill, Higgins Farm Windmill, now located at Drummer Boy Park. The Brewster Old King’s Highway Historic District includes much territory surrounding the scenic Route 6A (Old King’s Highway); attractions include the 1881 town hall Old Town Hall, the 1868 women’s library Brewster Ladies Library and a cemetery dating back to 1707. The 1659 home Dillingham House is one of the oldest in Cape Cod. Finally, the old mill Stony Brook Grist Mill and Museum.

Dinner at Chillingsworth long considered one of the best restaurants in Cape Cod, attracting food lovers to a location dating back 300 years; or alternatively the excellent former fish market, Brewster Fish House.

10th stop: heading towards Plimoth Plantation

(75 km)

Plimoth Plantation: defined as a “living history” museum, because it recreates real life in Plymouth of the 17th century, the Plimoth Colony offers you the chance to travel back in time to experience how life really was then. You will talk with the Pilgrim Fathers dealing with daily chores, meet crew members who helped bring the ship Mayflower to its historic destination of Plymouth and meet directly the original inhabitants of this land, who will tell you how the arrival of the settlers changed the lives of their ancestors, the Wampanoag, “the people of the dawn.” Imagine how different your life would be if suddenly you found yourself in the shoes of the Pilgrim Fathers or the Native Americans.

Pilgrim Fathers

The Pilgrim Fathers in the village know nothing of the future. Listen to the various dialects reflecting their places of origin. In the village you will be surrounded by modest wooden houses, cultivated gardens and vegetable patches, farm livestock, and fascinating inhabitants in period costumes, belonging to the Plymouth Colony, the first English settlement in New England. The people you meet are actors playing the roles of inhabitants, in carefully recreated costumes as of the time, narrating the events of their own period of life and history: they are the Pilgrims “Pilgrims.” Everyone has their own story to tell. You can learn about the difficulties at the beginning of the colony or discover village gossip. You can also ask them about religion and their beliefs, Protestant refugees from England, or about medical practices and relations with the native Indian Wampanoag. If you talk to a housewife you will learn what a “pottage” is or watch how to roast a duck or fish in the oven. You might also help a young settler sow a small field, help build a house, or simply relax on a bench immersing yourself in the unique atmosphere of the New Plymouth of the seventeenth century. The museum has carefully recreated every piece you will see and touch. Even the food is prepared as it was in the 17th century.

Your visit is self-guided, map in hand, and you will enter the year 1627: feel free to explore the village at length, at your pleasure. Do not be intimidated if you come across a colonist while he is eating his meal; rather stop to ask questions or join an animated conversation taking place along one of the village streets. Most of the objects and tools in the houses are modern reproductions of ancient examples and can be touched.

The only detail – perhaps difficult for an Italian – is the language used in the village: you should be an expert in Skapespeare to make you feel comfortable in the conversation. Dare: see what reaction you get! Maybe if you reveal you are Italian, the Pilgrim will mention the Medici and talk to you about Florence, or simply look at you as a Catholic specimen. The opportunity to have a unique experience in a 17th-century village, with a truly English perspective, will help you understand how crucial the Atlantic crossing was at those times. You will be surprised to listen to these people!

Natives Wampanoag

The people you will meet at the natives’ camp Wampanoag speak of the past, but their story is told from a modern perspective. You can enter a traditional wetu house and become part of a world that is certainly not familiar to you. Furs, lit fires, handwoven mats: this is the environment of the traditional Indian family of the Wampanoag when the Pilgrim Fathers arrived. They convey it from their point of view, that of the indigenous people. Walk in this nature area and you will smell the sobaheg (stew) cooking on the fire along with aromatic herbs. You will discover medicinal plants, typical remedies used by the Wampanoag natives, or you can help build a canoe carved from a tree trunk – a mishoon (boat) using ancient centuries-old techniques. You can also stroll along the banks of the calm waters of the Eel River. The Wampanoag have lived in the southeastern part of New England for over 12,000 years. The camp revives their history and connects you with Hobbamock, a tribe member to learn the culture and history of the Wampanoag. You can negotiate with the Wampanoag, natives who have lived on this land long before the arrival of English colonists, for hundreds of generations. It is important to note that – unlike the customs and interpreters of the colonists’ village, here it is not interpreters playing the role of natives, but original natives who wear deer skins and speak their native, current language, talking about their own people, the Wampanoag.

The museum is developed in two distinct and separate zones:

• The Plimoth Plantation is about five kilometers from the downtown of Plymouth
• TheMayflower II è anchored in Plymouth harbor

In the Visitor Center you will find a wide variety of exhibitions, restaurants, restrooms, and the main museum shop, which includes a section with children’s items and one with vintage groceries. In the Crafts Center (stable craft center) you will meet and see artisans at work, while they create reproductions of pieces for the historic sites of Plimoth Plantation. You can have lunch at the Plantation which features a cafeteria.

Continuation to Boston where the trip ends and the experience of parks, gardens, and historic homes of this America immersed in history and traditions concludes.

©Thema Nuovi Mondi

New England itinerary map