Itinerary in New England, among historic homes, parks, and gardens

10-Day Itinerary in New England

In 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 arboretums 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 meadows, fantastic color combinations, ornamental structures, and paths. There are secret gardens, tropical gardens, orchid gardens and those with little houses, 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 well as one of the oldest botanical gardens in the country. Autumn is perfect for discovering small and large natural treasures of New England, kissed by the kaleidoscopic atmospheres of the colors of Indian Summer. It is suggested to take the trip by no later than the first half of October to catch the palette and the autumn colors that fade from north to south in the region during a period starting in mid-September and extending 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 still be enjoyed at the beginning of November. Our New England itinerary starts in Boston. Don’t forget to prepare your documents for traveling to the United States in time.

Stop 1: BOSTON / Arrival and walk at the Boston Public Garden

The Boston Public Garden is in the heart of the city, adjacent to America’s oldest public park, 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 parks and gardens architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The Public Garden connects south to Boylston Street, west to Arlington Street, north to Beacon Street, and east to Charles Street, which divides the Public Garden from the Boston Common. The park contains many plants and a pond of over one and a half hectares, on which from April to the end of October the famous Swan Boat shaped boats used as an attraction in Boston navigate, guided by tour guides. Another feature is the numerous bronze statues adorning the park, including Make Way for Ducklings, a tribute to a famous children’s story.

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

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boston is the beautiful house-museum at Fenway Court, created by Isabella Stewart Gardner, a Bostonian magnate and billionaire who collected very valuable works during many years of travel in Europe and Asia. The Venetian Renaissance-style mansion houses paintings by El Greco, Titian, Vermeer, Sargent, just to name a few painters. There are over 2,500 art pieces, including the first Matisse painting acquired by an American museum. Gardner was a controversial and cross-cutting figure in Boston of the late 1800s and early 1900s, as she associated with enlightened figures, eccentric artists, was a muse and patron, as well as the keeper of a “non-Puritan” salon. In 2012 the new museum wing designed by architect Renzo Piano was inaugurated: 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 acres that are part of the Emerald Necklace park system of Boston designed in the late 1800s. The arboretum is the major research center on plants with about 14,000 trees belonging to 5,000 classifications. The Visitor Center offers maps and brochures for self-guided tours, exhibitions about the Arboretum and its plants, seasonal displays, a shop with books and educational items for children and adults, children’s activities, and restrooms. The Arboretum is open year-round from dawn to dusk with free access. This garden was the filming location of the carriage scene of the Paris walk in the film Little Women (2019) directed by Greta Gerwig.

In Boston, at least three days should be dedicated to exploring its numerous squares, ancient streets, neighborhoods where finely decorated flowerbeds stand out, Beacon Hill, Back Bay, or the South End. Commonwealth Avenue is a succession of magnolias and delightful period buildings, dotted with meticulously maintained gardens. It’s a surprise in every season. Don’t miss a walk along the innovative Rose Kennedy Greenway alongside the Harbor Walk, on the waterfront. This long winding green area is a very interesting and inviting mix of diverse cultivations, interspersed with vegetable gardens, decorated with artistic and luminous installations, benches and street lamps, fountains, and water play. It’s the perfect urban solution replacing vehicle lanes (now all underground), allowing citizens and visitors a “friendly” walk, especially pleasant during spring bloom or autumn.

Stop 2: Coast north of Boston, northern Massachusetts, Ipswich

Visit to the Castle Hill on the Crane Estate

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

The property’s name derives from the headland of the same Ipswich in England, from which the English colonial founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony came. Centuries before becoming the opulent summer residence of one of America’s richest families, Castle Hill was known to the native Indians as “Agawam,” referring to the abundant catch. In the early 1880s, J. B. Brown transformed Castle Hill Farm from agricultural land to a true “gentleman’s farm,” improving the roads, park and upgrading the rural house to an elegant cottage which today is The Inn at Castle Hill. Many scenes from the film The Witches of Eastwick (1987), directed by George Miller and based on the novel by John Updike starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer, were shot in this estate.

Richard T. Crane, Jr. bought the property in 1910 and transformed Castle Hill as an example of the “American Country Place Era” with its farm, buildings, park, gardens, and various natural areas. The Crane family hired some of the most famous architects of houses and gardens of the time. The first house built atop Castle Hill, a Renaissance Italian villa revival, was designed by Shepley, Rutan, and 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 wildlife typical of northeastern Massachusetts forests. Deer, foxes, wild turkeys, and many songbirds can be observed on numerous Castle Hill trails. It is also a home to many pairs of great horned owls and red-tailed hawks nesting here. Due to its Atlantic Ocean location near Crane Beach, rare species such as vultures, migratory hawks, and occasionally bald eagles can be spotted. Lunch is suggested at The Inn at Castle Hill with prior reservation.

Visit to the Zimmerman House

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

Wright redesigned the house around a rock positioned right at the entrance. His design extended to include the entire interior furnishings, the furniture as well as the mailbox, and he specified the plant layout for the garden. The visit begins at the Museum and continues with the house, ensuring to have booked the visit in advance. Private tours are available with a reservation at least two weeks prior.

Stop 3: Cornish, New Hampshire

(135 km)

Cornish

The home in Cornish belonged to 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 truly a record, as no other location in New Hampshire boasts so many. The most notable is the Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge, which spans the two banks of the Connecticut River and is the longest two-span covered bridge in the world, built in 1866 at a cost of $9,000: 140 meters, a real link between New Hampshire and Vermont. Must-see 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, English colonists named the village after Sir Samuel Cornish, a Royal Navy admiral, and settled here using the river banks as a transportation point for shipbuilding trees conveyed via river waters. In 1885, the famous sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens settled here to walk 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 southeastern corner of Central Park, and his Peter Cooper Monument firmly sits outside the Cooper Union. He lived in a majestic house 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, including the painter and illustrator Maxfield Parrish, who designed and built his residence in this area, Oaks.

Cornish Art Colony

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

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

Cornish Gardens

Gardens were a common denominator of the colony. Extensive ones belonged to Thomas Dewing and Stephen Parrish, which went step by step with the landscape design of Charles Platt and his protégées Ellen Shipman and Rose Nichols. Stephen Parrish fell in love with the pastoral beauty of Cornish, visited alongside landscape architect Charles Platt, his student with a home in Cornish. In 1893, Stephen bought 18 acres next to Platt and built a house he called Northcote. He spent the next ten years working on the garden, considered by many the most beautiful garden of all the artists’ colony gardens. It was precisely for 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 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 zones framed the views. Like in Tuscany, building was also a challenge in Cornish, but the genius was in understanding the landscape.

From 1893 to 1910, Stephen kept a detailed diary of his garden, including notes on climate, birds, daily activities, garden purchases, list of plants (including those that grew well), and newspaper clippings about gardens. Generous information on painted canvases and visits he received. When his granddaughter Anne Bogardus Parrish died in 1966, she left the precious diary to Dartmouth College. Northcote is the best-documented garden in all of Cornish and not only attracted attention, but was photographed and described in House and Garden, The Century Magazine, and Country Life in America, and 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 within a 5 km radius, in the northeastern corner of Cornish and southwest of Plainfield. The historic buildings of the Cornish Colony and structures in the villages of Plainfield and Cornish include residences, barns, carriage houses, studios, ancillary structures and gardens, social institutions, and public buildings. About ten properties in Cornish and Plainfield are attributed to the well-known architect and colony resident, Charles Platt, who mixed American influences with Italian villa styles. Besides Platt’s interventions following the style of Italian villas, residences built at that time generally maintain styles such as Colonial Revival, and Shingle and Craftsman motifs. At the end of the visit, enjoy a nice walk in Cornish. This idyllic corner of New Hampshire deserves at least one overnight stay to fully enjoy the pastoral beauty of the landscapes.

Stop 4: towards Williamstown

Continuing the journey towards the hills of the Berkshire in Western Massachusetts, Williamstown (157 km). Arrival and visit to the beautiful The Clark Museum. Visit this treasure chest of art and stroll in the immense park where sculptures stand. The Clarks – wealthy magnates of the Berkshire Region – donated their vast private collection of art, paintings, and sculptures to the town of Williamstown, a small gem in northern Berkshire in western Massachusetts. The very pleasant museum and art research center Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, often simply called Clark Art Institute or The Clark, was built by an heir of Singer, the sewing machine “barons,” and tucked away in this bucolic area to protect 19th-century and Italian Renaissance works in case New York was bombed by the Germans during WWII. The French art collection includes Impressionists – among them numerous Renoir paintings enough to make it the largest collection in the USA –, Degas’ famous ballerinas, along with works by American artists, John Singer Sargent paintings, English silverware, etc. In June 2008, the museum and campus expanded with the addition of the Stone Hill Center, a 3,000-square-meter wing designed by Tadao Andō. This incredible museum is set in about 52 acres of garden grounds, harmoniously integrated with the building architecture, inviting beautiful walks in the woods, interspersed with views of the bucolic landscapes. The museum has a cafeteria with great snacks.

Stop 5: heading to Lenox in southern Berkshire

(44 km) followed by Stockbridge, MA.

Lenox

The famous American writer, first female Pulitzer Prize winner, Edith Wharton, author of many well-known novels now also recognized in Italy (notably the Martin Scorsese film adaptation “The Age of Innocence”), lived in Lenox. Her home – The Mount – is a beautiful Italian Renaissance-style country house, which the writer designed along with the land and entire estate, considering it her “first real home.” The Mount celebrated its centenary in 2002 after a complete exterior and interior renovation. Wharton was not only an important writer but also became famous for the art of decoration, for both houses and gardens, dismantling old dark and heavy Victorian décor and fully adopting light and Italian-style gardens. She wrote essays on this theme that revolutionized the style of her time and made her a true “trend-setter”. She lived in Italy and traveled extensively across Europe. She was among the female representatives of Boston’s “intelligentsia” in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Esteemed by artists and writers such as Henry James, who used to spend brief stays here. The layout of the residence and its vast park is spectacular, as are the historic gardens. A restaurant-bar with a wonderful terrace is available in the historic home. Reservations for dining onsite are recommended.

Continue to Stockbridge, which hides a variety of natural and art treasures. (10 km)

Stockbridge

Visit Naumkeag, former country estate of renowned New York lawyer Joseph Hodges Choate, located on Prospect Hill Road, Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Three decades dedicated to planting and caring for the landscape gave rise to this splendid New England “cottage garden.” Climb every step of the fountain stairway amidst white birches and explore all the special gardens, from rose gardens to evergreens. The visit to the residence and gardens requires at least two hours. There is a cafeteria with exquisite sandwiches, salads, drinks, and snacks. Those wishing to enjoy a nice picnic on the grass may also use provided blankets. With the beautiful house, magnificent gardens, and panoramic views, Naumkeag is quintessential of a Gilded Age country estate. This architectural artwork was also a family home. Joseph Choate, a prominent 19th-century lawyer, commissioned the architect firm McKim, Mead, & White for the design of his 44-room cottage, Naumkeag, which served as a summer residence for three generations of Choates. With its view of Monument Mountain, wonderful garden collection created by Joseph Choate’s daughter Miss Mabel Choate and Fletcher Steele over 30 years, original artworks, and shingle-style design of the residence, Naumkeag offers an unforgettable experience to visitors. Stroll beautiful gardens: Afternoon Garden, Tree Peony Terrace, Rose Garden, Evergreen Garden, and Chinese Garden to find the joyful and creative spirit of Miss Choate and Mr. Steele. Bequeathed in 1958 – complete with furnishings, gardening tools, and barn – Naumkeag is a National Historic Landmark offering direct connection to the historic environment of the Berkshires. It is also 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 illustrator Norman Rockwell. The Norman Rockwell Museum celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019. The NRM holds the largest collection of original Norman Rockwell paintings, depicting scenes of American provincial life that became famous worldwide. An American classic recalling life in the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s. Rockwell lived and worked in Stockbridge on the Berkshires hills. His covers for the Saturday Evening Post are cult objects. The museum sits in a wide green valley, surrounded by hills and woods of western Massachusetts. Thanks to patron Steven Spielberg, this museum is indeed one of the top State attractions and for its modern yet classically New England white architecture. On the same site is Rockwell’s studio, still as the painter left it (open May to October). After 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.

Stop 6: Heading to Hartford, capital of Connecticut

Located on the Connecticut River at the state center. (118 km)

Once, the city of Hartford, capital of Connecticut, was the richest city in America. Indeed, for decades after the Civil War, in the late 19th century, it also became a lively intellectual, religious, and progressive center. It had many industries, such as silk and arms, especially publishing. Thanks to the latter, 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 and Mark Twain.

Reverend Lyman Beecher was a prominent Congregational minister known for his sermons against slavery. Daughter Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the famous novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” while brother Reverend Henry Ward Beecher opposed slavery and supported temperance and women’s suffrage movements. Harriet’s sister, Isabella Beecher Hooker, was one of the founders of the women’s rights movement. Harriet Beecher Stowe was already famous when she purchased the cream-colored villa, where she spent the rest of her life from 1864 to her death in 1896. Visit the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center with the family’s historic residence.

Next to it stands another equally charming historic residence: the Mark Twain House and Museum, home to Samuel Langhorne Clemens and family from 1874 to 1891. Designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter and built in American Gothic style. The author of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” came to Hartford in 1871 to visit his publisher. He stayed at Harriet’s sister’s home in one of the Nook Farm villas and fell in love with it. A year later, he bought 4 acres a few hundred meters from Harriet’s home, and two years later, he moved into his 15-room, 5-bath villa (all with running hot and cold water). Here he wrote Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The house tour lasts at least 1 hour, but it is suggested to add another hour for the museum exhibitions and the Ken Burns film, Mark Twain. After the visit and a snack, continue towards the small state of Rhode Island to reach the town of Newport. Arrival, walk, dinner by the sea, and overnight stay.

Stop 7: Gilded Age Mansions in Newport

Step back in time: imagine yourself as an extra in the film The Great Gatsby and stroll curiously through beautiful residences, the Newport Mansions, once summer cottages for America’s aristocratic families, the Vanderbilt, the Astor, the Belmont. That “innocent” world lived in luxury, eccentricity, and looked to Europe for inspirations from arts, palaces, and our natural “savoir vivre”. First stop in Newport is the Beechwood Mansion of the Astors: once inside, you will be in 1861. The discovery of the Rich & Famous continues. Visit the Cornelius Vanderbilt Mansion, The Breakers, and Edward Berwind’s Mansion, The Elms, then William K. Vanderbilt’s Mansion, The Marble House.

The Mansion The Breakers is the most opulent: built in only two years from 1893 to 1895, it has 70 apartments. One quirky feature are the bathroom sinks: they have four taps, two for hot and cold fresh water and two for hot and cold seawater. Upstairs, you visit the children’s and guest rooms. The Elms is smaller: occupied from 1901, and the Berwinds used to celebrate parties with more than 200 guests. The beautiful library in the North Alcove is composed of dark and red wood panels; the large fireplace is decorated with plants. Don’t miss a nice outdoor walk admiring the exteriors, parks, avenues, and gardens of these rich residences: you will get a full dimension of Newport’s Gilded Age opulence. You will walk along the autumn sea and breathe Newport’s breeze that made it famous as the sailing capital and birthplace of the America’s Cup. Most of all, don’t miss the CLIFF WALK, along Newport’s east shore. It is about a five-kilometer walking path created in 1975, offering incomparable sea views, along cliffs and natural coastal beauty: wildflowers, birds, and views 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, continue towards Cape Cod in Massachusetts and stay in one of its 16 charming seaside villages. Arrival at Sandwich, dinner, and overnight at the Daniel Webster Inn. (139 Km)

Stop 8: Cape Cod and its gardens

Cape Cod

Cape Cod occupies a special place in the hearts and minds of Americans. Boston, New England, or New York families make it their favorite weekend refuge to escape city pressures. It is the place where the Kennedy clan created its “compound,” in the village of Hyannis. Cape Cod is a harmony of nature and simplicity, aesthetic taste, and authenticity. There are fields near the Atlantic Ocean, which in autumn are flooded and produce a sharp characteristic fruit, the red cranberry berry, essential on the Thanksgiving Dinner turkey plate and one of Massachusetts’ major agricultural exports worldwide. The tradition of fishing and fish markets in small coastal villages still survives. The sea, boats, and catch are some of the most typical representations of this peninsula. These island images are idyllic visions, immortalized in writings and paintings by artists from Thoreau to Edward Hopper.

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

Heritage Museums & Gardens

Visit the Heritage Museums & Gardens, Sandwich – Here are 40 acres of plants, bulbs, splendid flowers, and well-kept meadows. This is an extraordinary environment offering unbeatable horticulture, garden design, outdoor discovery, exhibitions of magnificent collections and vibrant colors all year. Moderate climate and rain allow over 500 varieties cultivated across garden zones including the Windmill Garden with spectacular blooms. Workshops, seminars, and activities are available year-round. Visitors come from all over to admire three rooms holding special and permanent exhibits: American Folk Art, a vintage carousel, antique cars inside a replica of a classic Shaker barn in Massachusetts, and temporary exhibitions. The gardens feature thousands of rhododendrons, including the famous Dexter variety blooming from late May to mid-June. The grounds also include the Old East Mill, a mill built in Orleans, Massachusetts in the 1800s and extensively restored between 1999 and 2000. In 2002, a maze designed by Marty Cain, one of North America’s best maze designers, was added. Other features include the Hart Family Maze Garden and the Cape Cod Hydrangea Garden. The Special Exhibitions Gallery is a replica of a Revolutionary War building known as The Temple of Virtue in New Windsor, New York, the site where George Washington awarded the first Purple Heart to a wounded soldier. Continue the day visiting another historic garden: Heritage Museums & Gardens, Falmouth – A magnificent 1878 estate restored, belonging to the Beebe family, and one of the few remaining examples of Queen Anne-style architecture in the northeast. The two-year restoration of the two magnificent gardens was completed in 2013; the mansion and gardens are open to the public from April to the end of October. Estate walks are offered the first and third Sundays during the open season. Guided tours by educators and pre-scheduled tours are available year-round for groups of 5 or more. Admission is charged. After the visit, continue to the next Cape Cod stop, arriving at Provincetown at the northern tip of the peninsula. Walk, dine, and overnight in Provincetown.

Stop 9: Cape Cod National Seashore Park

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

Cape Cod National Seashore

The approximately 18,000 acres comprising the Cape Cod National Seashore across roughly 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 5,000 years Cape Cod’s coasts will disappear due to erosion and rising ocean water levels. Cape Cod is a glacial deposit constantly reshaped by wind and water movements, sculpting sand dunes along seaside coasts. The cliff at the Marconi Wireless Station near Wellfleet has visibly eroded since Guglielmo Marconi built his tower in 1901. The Great Island, once a whalers’ hunting spot, is now connected to the peninsula. The entire Cape Cod peninsula loses about one meter of coast annually due to erosion.

It is one of those classic areas constantly influenced by the whims of the Atlantic Ocean. The 1978 storm, Hurricane Bob in 1991, and great storms in 1993 radically changed the landscape of the Cape Cod National Seashore. Important architecture preserving the Cape tradition is found within the park: lighthouses, coast guard stations, as well as historic houses long part of Cape Cod’s charm. It is a park you must visit at least once in your lifetime!

Created on August 7, 1961, by President John F. Kennedy, the Cape Cod National Seashore extends about 60 km of coast, including the towns of Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans, and Chatham: all undeniably charming and architecturally beautiful. 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 had many benefits, but after months of searching, they decided to settle in Plymouth. In 1902, Guglielmo Marconi built one of two North American wireless stations in South Wellfleet. On January 18, 1903, the first Morse code communication between Europe and the Atlantic took place via Cape Cod’s station. Cape Cod birthed the world’s first sea rescue and lifesaving program, which became the U.S. Life Saving Service in 1872, a service as popular as the U.S. Cavalry thanks to its brave lifesavers. The park includes beaches, sand cliffs forming dunes, sand hollows, tidal pools, salt marshes, and soft grassy land. Inland, there are ponds, natural freshwater pools, and cranberry fields. Vegetation includes pines and oak shrubs and sandy herbaceous plants. Beach plums, bayberries, and berries are common. Twenty-five protected wildlife species live here. The Park can be accessed from two Visitor Centers, which also include amphitheaters for historical and natural documentaries, and from which rangers lead hikes and guided tours. At the Salt Pond Visitor Center in Eastham – open year-round – there is also a cinema room showing numerous historical and natural documentaries highlighting various park history and ecosystem topics. The center organizes a calendar with speakers including historians and writers, lighthouse tours – legendary lookouts of Massachusetts coast – exploration of sand dunes and their habitats, long beach walks, visits to historic houses and lifestyle of Cape Codders, as well as marine mammal curiosities: seals and whales, an integral part of the Cape’s wildlife heritage. Lunch is free on Provincetown Main Street before departing to 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 Cape Cod’s best restaurants. The historic structures are open to the public. The Brewster Historical Society is a great place to start and is housed in a 1799 residence, Elijah Cobb House on Lower Road. The historical society also manages the 1795 mill, Higgins Farm Windmill, now relocated to Drummer Boy Park. The Brewster Old King’s Highway Historic District covers much area around 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 Dillingham House is among Cape Cod’s oldest. Finally, the ancient Stony Brook Grist Mill and Museum.

Dinner at Chillingsworth long considered one of Cape Cod’s best restaurants, drawing food lovers to a 300-year-old location; or alternatively, the excellent former fish market, Brewster Fish House.

Stop 10: Towards Plimoth Plantation

(75 km)

Plimoth Plantation: defined as a “living history” museum, because it recreates real life in 17th-century Plymouth, the Plimoth Colony lets you travel back in time to experience life as it really was then. You will talk to the Pilgrims managing daily chores, meet crew members who helped guide the Mayflower ship to its historic Plymouth destination, and meet the native inhabitants of this land who will tell you how colonists’ arrival altered their ancestors’ lives, the Wampanoag, the “people of the dawn.” Imagine how different your life would be if suddenly you found yourself in the shoes of Pilgrims or Indians.

Pilgrim Fathers

The Pilgrims in the village know nothing of the future. Listen to the various dialects reflecting their origins. In the village you will be surrounded by modest wooden cottages, cultivated gardens and vegetable patches, farm animals, and charming period-dressed inhabitants belonging to the Plymouth Colony, the first English settlement in New England. The people you meet are interpreters playing the role of inhabitants, wearing carefully crafted costumes from the era, narrating the events of their life period and history: they are the “Pilgrims.” Everyone has a story to tell. You can learn about the colony’s early hardships or discover village gossip. Feel free to ask about religion and their Protestant beliefs, fleeing English Protestants, or medical practices and relations with native Wampanoag Indians. Talking with a housewife, you’ll learn what a “pottage” is or watch a duck or fish baked in an oven. You might help a young settler sow a small field, help build a house, or simply relax on a bench immersive in the unique atmosphere of 17th-century New Plymouth. The museum has carefully reproduced everything you see and touch. Even the food is prepared as it was in the 17th century.

Your visit is self-guided, with maps in hand, allowing you to enter the year 1627: feel free to explore the village at will. Don’t be intimidated if you encounter a colonist eating; rather, stop and ask questions or join an animated conversation along one of the village streets. Most household items and tools are modern reproductions and can be touched.

One detail – possibly difficult for Italians – is the language used in the village: you might need to be an expert in Shakespearean to feel comfortable. Dare it: see how people react! Maybe if you reveal you are Italian, the Pilgrim will cite the Medicis and talk about Florence, or simply look at you as an example of a Catholic. This unique experience in a 17th-century village with a truly English perspective will make you understand how crucial the Atlantic crossing was then. You will be surprised listening to these people!

Native Wampanoag

The people you meet at the native Wampanoag camp 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 unfamiliar to you. Furs, fire pits, handwoven mats: this is the environment of the traditional Wampanoag Indian family when the Pilgrims arrived. They convey this from their point of view, that of the indigenous. Walk in this nature area and smell the sobaheg (stew) cooking with aromatic herbs over the fire. You will learn about medicinal plants, remedies traditionally used by Wampanoag natives, or help craft a canoe carved from a tree trunk – a mishoon (boat) using centuries-old techniques. You may also walk along the shores of the calm Eel River. The Wampanoag have lived in southeastern New England for over 12,000 years. The camp revives their history and lets you meet Hobbamock, a tribe member teaching about Wampanoag culture and history. You can negotiate with the Wampanoag, indigenous people living here long before English colonists arrived for hundreds of generations. It is important to note that, unlike the village’s colonist interpreters, here the natives are original and wear deer skins, speak their native language, and discuss their own people, the Wampanoag.

The museum is divided into two distinct and separate areas:

• Plimoth Plantation is about five kilometers from downtown Plymouth
• The Mayflower II is docked in Plymouth Harbor

In the Visitor Center, you will find a wide variety of exhibits, restaurants, restrooms, and the main museum shop, which includes a children’s section and a period grocery section. At the Crafts Center (the barn artisan center), you meet craftspeople and see them creating reproductions of pieces for the historic Plimoth Plantation sites. You can have lunch at the Plantation, which has a cafeteria.

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

© Thema Nuovi Mondi

New England travel map