Seventy-two stone steps climb to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and nearly everyone takes them at a jog, arms ready to shoot up at the top. In a flat river city, this is the summit. Turn around and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway runs straight toward City Hall and the skyline behind it.
Past the postcard views, Philadelphia lives in its rowhouse neighborhoods, from the music halls and old warehouses of Fishtown to the restaurants lining diagonal Passyunk Avenue in South Philly. Summers are hot and humid, winters turn cold, and spring and fall bring the mildest walking weather. A Local Friend can pull up a chair for you at a corner spot you would never have found.
