Cambridge

Boston and Cambridge are so closely associated that many people believe they're the same place -- a notion that both cities' residents and politicians are happy to dispel. Cantabrigians are often considered more liberal and better educated than Bostonians, which is another idea that's sure to get you involved in a lively discussion. Take the Red Line across the river and see for yourself.

For a good overview, begin at the main Harvard T entrance. Follow our Harvard Square walking tour, or set out on your own. At the information booth (tel. 800/862-5678 or 617/497-1630) in the middle of Harvard Square at the intersection of Mass. Ave., John F. Kennedy Street, and Brattle Street, trained volunteers dispense maps and brochures and answer questions Monday through Saturday from 9am to 5pm and Sunday from 1 to 5pm. From mid-June to Labor Day, guided tours explore the entire old Cambridge area. Check at the booth for rates, meeting places, and times, or call ahead. If you prefer to sightsee on your own, you can buy the Cambridge Historical Commission's Revolutionary Cambridge walking guide ($2).

Whatever you do, spend some time in Harvard Square. It's a hodgepodge of college and high school students, professors and instructors, commuters, street performers, and sightseers. Near the information booth are two well-stocked newsstands, Nini's Corner and Out of Town News, and the Harvard Coop bookstore. Stores and restaurants line all three streets that spread out from the center of the square and the streets that intersect them. If you follow Brattle Street to the residential area just outside the square, you'll arrive at a part of town known as "Tory Row" because the residents were loyal to King George during the Revolution.

The gorgeous yellow mansion at 105 Brattle St. is the Longfellow National Historic Site (tel. 617/876-4491; www.nps.gov/long), the longtime home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882). The poet first lived here as a boarder in 1837. When he and Fanny Appleton married in 1843, her father made the house a wedding present. The furnishings and books in the stately home are original to Longfellow, who lived here until his death, and his descendants. During the siege of Boston in 1775-76, the house served as the headquarters of Gen. George Washington, with whom Longfellow was fascinated. On a tour -- the only way to see the house -- you'll learn about the history of the building and its famous occupants.

The house is usually open June through October Wednesday through Sunday from 10am to 4:30pm, but always check ahead. Tours begin at 10:30 and 11:30am, and 1, 2, 3, and 4pm. Admission is $5 for adults, free for children under 16.

Farther west, near where Brattle Street and Mount Auburn Street intersect, is Mount Auburn Cemetery. It's a pleasant but long walk; you might prefer to drive or take a bus from Harvard station.

Celebrity Cemetery

Three important colonial burying grounds -- Old Granary, King's Chapel, and Copp's Hill -- are in Boston on the Freedom Trail, but the most famous cemetery in the area is in Cambridge.

Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mount Auburn St. (tel. 617/547-7105; www.mountauburn.org), the final resting place of many well-known people, is also famous simply for existing. Dedicated in 1831, it was the first of America's rural, or garden, cemeteries. The establishment of burying places removed from city centers reflected practical and philosophical concerns: Development was encroaching on urban graveyards, and the ideas associated with Transcendentalism and the Greek revival (the word cemetery derives from the Greek for "sleeping place") dictated that communing with nature take precedence over organized religion. Since the day it opened, Mount Auburn has been a popular place to retreat and reflect.

Visitors to this National Historic Landmark find history and horticulture coexisting with celebrity. The graves of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Julia Ward Howe, and Mary Baker Eddy are here, as are those of Charles Bulfinch, James Russell Lowell, Winslow Homer, Transcendentalist leader Margaret Fuller, and abolitionist Charles Sumner. In season you'll see gorgeous flowering trees and shrubs (the Massachusetts Horticultural Society had a hand in the design). Visit the visitor center in Story Chapel for an overview and a look at the changing exhibits, or just stop at the office or front gate to pick up brochures and a map. You can rent an audiotape tour ($7; a $15 deposit is required) and listen in your car or on a portable tape player; there's a 60-minute driving tour and two 75-minute walking tours. The Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery conduct workshops and lectures and coordinate walking tours; call the main number for topics, schedules, and fees.

The cemetery is open daily from 8am to 5pm October through April, 8am to 7pm May through September; admission is free. Animals and recreational activities such as jogging, biking, and picnicking are not allowed. MBTA bus nos. 71 and 73 start at Harvard station and stop near the cemetery gates; they run frequently on weekdays and less often on weekends. By car (5 min.) or on foot (30 min.), take Mount Auburn Street or Brattle Street west from Harvard Square; just after the streets intersect, the gate is on the left.

Harvard University

Our Harvard Square walking tour describes many of the buildings you'll see on the Harvard campus. Free student-led tours leave from the Information Center in Holyoke Center, 1350 Mass. Ave. (tel. 617/495-1573). They operate during the school year twice a day on weekdays and once on Saturday, except during vacations, and during the summer four times a day Monday through Saturday. Call for exact times; reservations aren't necessary. The Information Center has maps, illustrated booklets, and self-guided walking-tour directions, as well as a bulletin board where flyers publicize campus activities. You might want to check out the university website (www.harvard.edu) before you visit.

The best-known part of the university is Harvard Yard, which consists of two large quadrangles. Daniel Chester French's John Harvard statue, a rendering of one of the school's original benefactors, is in the Old Yard, which dates to the college's founding in 1636. Most first-year students live in the dormitories here -- even in the school's oldest building, Massachusetts Hall (1720). "Mass. Hall" also holds the university president's office, which gained a female occupant for the first time in 2007. The other side of the Yard (sometimes called Tercentenary Theater because the college's 300th-anniversary celebration was held there) is home to the imposing Widener Library, named after a Harvard graduate who perished when the Titanic sank.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

The public is welcome at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus, a mile or so from Harvard Square, across the Charles River from Beacon Hill and the Back Bay. Visit the Information Office, 77 Mass. Ave. (tel. 617/253-4795), to take a free guided tour (weekdays at 10am and 2pm) or to pick up a copy of the Walk Around MIT map and brochure. At the same address, the Hart Nautical Galleries (open daily 9am-8pm) contain ship and engine models that illustrate the development of marine engineering.

MIT's campus is known for its art and architecture. The excellent outdoor sculpture collection includes works by Picasso and Alexander Calder, and notable modern buildings include designs by Frank Gehry, Eero Saarinen, and I. M. Pei. Gehry designed the Stata Center (http://web.mit.edu/evolving/buildings/stata), a curvilinear landmark that opened on Vassar Street off Main Street in 2004. Visit the information desk on the ground floor to pick up a pamphlet describing a self-guided tour.

Engaging holography displays and robots are the hallmarks of the MIT Museum, 265 Mass. Ave. (tel. 617/253-4444; http://web.mit.edu/museum), where you'll also find works in more conventional media, such as kinetic sculpture. This is a good place to participate in activities and programs that explore the role of science and technology in society. The museum and its entertaining gift shop are open Tuesday through Friday (plus Mon July-Aug) from 10am to 5pm, weekends from noon to 5pm (closed on major holidays). Admission is $5 for adults, $2 for seniors, and $1 for students and children 5 to 17. The school's contemporary art repository, the List Visual Arts Center, in the atrium of the Wiesner Building, 20 Ames St. (tel. 617/253-4680; http://web.mit.edu/lvac), is open Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 6pm, until 8pm on Friday. Admission and gallery tours are free.

To get to MIT, take the MBTA Red Line to Kendall/MIT. The scenic walk from the Back Bay takes you along Mass. Ave. over the river straight to the campus. By car from Boston, cross the river at the Museum of Science, Cambridge Street, or Mass. Ave. and follow signs to Memorial Drive, where you can usually find parking during the day.