Think about Boston and you will likely experience a flashback to high school history class--something about redcoats, patriots, Paul Revere, and a midnight ride. If you were schooled in the United States you had Boston's role in American history drilled into your cerebral consciousness, and rightly so: Boston played a major role in this nation's 18th-century bid for independence, earning it a proud place in the annals of U.S. history.

But Boston is more than the historic icon described in high school history books. It's also a vibrant urban center offering plenty of opportunity for fun and frolic, study and learning, and commerce and trade.

Though Boston's first permanent European resident, Reverend William Blaxton, settled in the 1620s at the site of today's Boston Common, the city's oldest neighborhood is actually the North End. It is here that you'll find Boston's oldest wooden house. Dating to 1680, the historic dwelling was once the home of noted patriot Paul Revere and his family. In the early part of the 19th century, Irish immigrants began to settle in the North End followed by Italian settlers in the 1890s. Today this area is Boston's unofficial "Little Italy."

Starting in the North End, stroll a few blocks west to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. These well-known sites are surrounded by an array of equally historic structures dating to the days before the American Revolution. Cross Congress Street and head south and you'll pass through Boston's financial district, downtown, the theater district, and Chinatown. Continue west and you'll see the famed golden dome crowning the Massachusetts State House at the foot of Beacon Hill--Boston's Brahmin neighborhood. Cross Beacon Street and you're at Boston Common. Make your way through the Common to Charles Street and you're facing the Public Garden.

A bit farther and you're in the Back Bay. The result of an immense engineering coup, the Back Bay really was a bay until the latter part of the 19th century when planners decided to dam the Charles River and fill the swampy wetlands. Stroll along Newbury Street with its trendy boutiques and fashionable cafes, or Marlborough Street with its charming gas lanterns and brownstone townhouses, and it's difficult to believe that the Back Bay as we know it didn't exist until just over 100 years ago.

As it prepares to enter the 21st century, Boston continues to change with the times. In the immediate future, the city looks forward to the completion of the Big Dig construction project and the depression of the Central Artery, a project that will reunite the North End and the waterfront with downtown and make the city whole again.