Pittsfield

Berkshire County's largest city (pop. 44,285) gets little attention in most tourist literature, and for good reason. A commercial and industrial center, it presents little of the charm that marks such popular destinations as Stockbridge and Lenox. Still, it is a convenient base for day excursions to attractions elsewhere in the region.

A recently-discovered document banned the playing of baseball within 80 yards of the main church in 1791, giving Pittsfield claim to the invention of the game, 48 years before Cooperstown, NY. In summer, the Berkshire Black Bears (tel. 413/448-2255) play minor-league baseball at Wahconah Park, a 1919 stadium with real wooden box seats.

Pittsfield lies 137 miles west of Boston, 7 miles north of Lenox. The Berkshire Visitors Bureau (tel. 800/237-5747 or 413/443-9186; www.berkshires.org) is in the same block of buildings as the Crowne Plaza Hotel, on Berkshire Common.

Getting Outside

Plaine's Bike, Ski, & Snowboard, 55 W. Housatonic St., at Center Street (tel. 413/499-0294; www.plaines.com), rents bikes and carries equipment for all the sports its name suggests. It's on Route 20, west of downtown.

Pittsfield State Forest, entered on Cascade Street (tel. 413/442-8992), is a little over 3 miles west of the center of town. Its 10,000 acres have 31 campsites, boat ramps, streams for canoeing and fishing, and trails for hiking, biking, riding, and cross-country skiing. It's open daily from 8am to 8pm. Admission is $2 per car.

Boating -- Onota Boat Livery, 463 Pecks Rd. (tel. 413/442-1724), rents canoes and motorboats for use on Onota Lake, conveniently located at the western edge of the city.

Skiing -- South of the city center, off Route 7 near the Pittsfield city limits, is the Bousquet Ski Area, Dan Fox Drive (tel. 413/442-8316 business office, 413/442-2436 snow phone; www.bousquets.com). Bousquet (pronounced "Bos-kay") has 21 trails, with a vertical drop of 750 feet, two double lifts, and two rope tows. Night skiing is available Monday through Saturday. Rentals and lessons are offered. Lift tickets cost $25 to $32.

Proceeding north on Route 7, watch for the turn west on Brodie Mountain Road and continue 2 miles to Jiminy Peak, Hancock (tel. 413/738-5500, or 413/738-7325 for ski reports; www.jiminypeak.com). This expanding resort aspires to four-season activity, so skiing on 28 trails (18 open at night) with seven lifts is supplemented the rest of the year by horseback riding, trapshooting, fishing in a stocked pond, a rock-climbing wall, six tennis courts, mountain biking, pools, and golf at the nearby Waubeeka Springs course. For people staying overnight, lift tickets are included in the room rates. For day-trippers, 4-hour tickets cost adults $40 during the week, $51 on weekends; $31 and $45 for ages 7 to 19, $31 and $35 for seniors, and $17 under age 7.

The Brodie Mountain Ski Area, on Route 7 in New Ashford, was bought by Jiminy Peak in 2005, and no longer offers skiing.

Pittsfield on Stage

The Berkshire Opera Company, 297 North St. (tel. 413/442-9955; www.berkshireopera.org), stages its June productions at the Mahaiwe Theatre in Great Barrington, its July and August productions of both established and new operas at the Koussevitzky Arts Center of Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield. That venue is also employed by the Albany Berkshire Ballet, 51 North St. (tel. 413/445-5382; www.berkshireballet.org), with up to 14 performances of two ballets from early July to mid-August.