Providence

On summer evenings, dozens of braziers blaze on the river in the middle of downtown, boats glide past, and music drifts across the water. A city break in Providence, the capital of Rhode Island, the smallest U.S. state, combines this WaterFire installation with colonial architecture, renowned universities, and a first-rate restaurant scene.

A City of Religious Freedom

Roger Williams founded Providence in 1636 after being banished from the Puritan colony of Massachusetts for his views. He named the settlement after divine providence and made it a refuge for the religiously persecuted; America's first Baptist congregation was established here. In the 19th century, textile mills and the jewelry industry brought prosperity – the Jewelry District is a reminder of that era. Beginning in the 1990s, the city uncovered rivers that had previously been built over and created new riverwalks, which breathed new life into the center.

Sights in Providence

Benefit Street on College Hill is considered one of the best-preserved streets of colonial and Federal-style houses in the United States. Here you'll find Brown University with its green campus and the Rhode Island School of Design, whose RISD Museum holds an outstanding art collection spanning antiquity to the present. The Providence Athenaeum, a library dating from 1838, was visited by Edgar Allan Poe himself. The Rhode Island State House has one of the largest self-supporting marble domes in the world. WaterFire takes place on select evenings between May and November. Roger Williams Park is home to a zoo, a planetarium, and a botanical center.

Eating and Going Out in Providence

Federal Hill is the Italian neighborhood, with bakeries, delis, and trattorias around Atwells Avenue and Piazza DePasquale. Fox Point by the harbor was long shaped by Portuguese and Cape Verdean immigrants. Local specialties include clam cakes and chowder in the clear Rhode Island style, coffee milk – milk with coffee syrup, the official state drink – and Del's Frozen Lemonade. Graduates of the Johnson & Wales University culinary school have shaped the restaurant scene. Downtown and Thayer Street on College Hill offer bars and cafés.

Theater and Art in Providence

The Trinity Repertory Company is one of the country's respected regional theaters, and the Providence Performing Arts Center stages Broadway productions in a movie palace from 1928. The arts center AS220 in Downtown supports artists with studios, galleries, and concerts. The John Brown House, a merchant's mansion from 1788, tells the story of the city's wealth and its entanglement in the slave trade. Numerous festivals take place in summer, including PVD Fest with music and street art.

Getting Around Providence and the Best Time to Visit

Rhode Island T. F. Green International Airport in Warwick is about 15 minutes to the south, and Boston Logan is roughly an hour away by car. Amtrak trains connect Providence with Boston and New York, and MBTA commuter trains run to Boston. The compact center is easy to explore on foot. The best time to visit is from May to October, with WaterFire and fall foliage. Day trips lead to Newport with its summer mansions and the Cliff Walk, as well as to the beaches of Narragansett.