Probably the best way to orient yourself in downtown Boston - and to appreciate the city's role in American history - is to walk some or all of the Freedom Trail . You can pick up or leave this easy self-guided route anywhere - a line of red bricks marking the trail is embedded in the pavement - but technically it begins on Boston Common at the Visitor Information Center .

From here, head for the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House (free tours Mon-Sat 10am-3.30pm), which was completed in 1798 to a design by Charles Bulfinch. It remains the seat of Massachusetts' government; its most famous feature, the wooden Sacred Cod symbolizing the wealth Boston accrued from its fisheries, hangs in front of the Speaker, and faces in different directions according to which party is in office.

Though Park Street Church (July & Aug Tues-Sat 9am-3pm; rest of year by appointment; free) is by no means "the most interesting mass of bricks and mortar in America" that Henry James claimed, its ornate white steeple is undeniably impressive. This was where the orator William Lloyd Garrison launched his campaign to free the slaves on July 4, 1829. The 1600 graves of the Old Granary Burying Ground just around the corner (daily 9am-5pm; free) include those of Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and John Hancock, as well as the reputed Mother Goose, a Bostonian named Elizabeth Vergoose (or Vertigoose), said to have collected nursery rhymes for her grandchildren; while King's Chapel Burying Ground (daily 9.30am-5pm; free) contains Boston's earliest colonists and the first governor, John Winthrop. A statue of Benjamin Franklin marks the site of Boston Latin , America's first public school, attended by Franklin and Samuel Adams. Guests at the nearby Omni Parker House Hotel (not officially on the Trail) have included Charles Dickens and John Kennedy, Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh. The Old Corner Bookstore at School and Washington streets (Mon-Sat 9am-6pm, Sun noon-5pm) was a literary salon frequented by Longfellow, Thoreau and Hawthorne.

Next come the Trail's two most striking and significant buildings. At the Old South Meeting House (daily: April-Oct 9.30am-5pm; Nov-March 10am-4pm; $3), the largest building in colonial Boston and an old Puritan house of worship, Samuel Adams addressed the patriots about to carry out the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. This was no raucous and unruly mob: they were solemn men, well aware of the likely impact of their actions. The elegant Old State House , built in 1712 and still proud, although dwarfed by surrounding skyscrapers, was the seat of colonial government. From its balcony the Declaration of Independence was read on July 18, 1776; exactly two hundred years later Queen Elizabeth II appeared on that same balcony. Inside is a museum of Boston history (daily 9am-5pm; $3). Outside, a plain ring of cobblestones set on a traffic island at the intersection of Devonshire and State streets marks the site of the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, when British soldiers fired on a crowd that was pelting them with stone-filled snowballs, and killed five, including the black Crispus Attucks.

Modern visitors gravitate to Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall (it rhymes with Daniel; daily 9am-5pm; free) for the lively shops, restaurants and takeaways that made this a pioneer example of successful urban renewal (by the developer who went on to transform London's Covent Garden). Faneuil Hall was, how ever, once known as the "Cradle of Liberty," a meeting place for Revolutionaries and, later, abolitionists. Nearby on Union Street, step off the Freedom Trail to visit The New England Holocaust Memorial , six tall hollow glass pillars built to resemble smokestacks and etched with quotes and facts about the Holocaust, with an unusual degree of attention to its non-Jewish victims.

Passing under the six-lane John Fitzgerald Expressway and into the North End, you reach Paul Revere House , Boston's last surviving seventeenth-century house (daily: mid-April to Oct 31 9.30am-5.15pm; Nov 1 to mid-April 9.30am-4.15pm; closed Mon Jan-March; $2.50), built after the Great Fire of 1676, and home to Paul Revere - patriot, silversmith, Freemason and father of sixteen children - from 1770 until 1800. When Revere embarked upon his famous ride of April 18, 1775, to warn Lexington of imminent British attack, two lanterns were hung from the belfry of Old North Church , 193 Salem St (daily: June-Oct 9am-6pm; Nov-May 9am-5pm), to alert Charlestown in case he got caught. A little further up, from Copp's Hill Burial Ground (daily 9am-5pm; free), you can see across the harbor to Charlestown; as indeed could the British, who planted their artillery here for the Battle of Bunker Hill.

In theory, the Freedom Trail now crosses the Charlestown Bridge, but that's a long walk over. Its final two sites are better reached by the frequent ferries from Long Wharf to Charlestown Navy Yard (Mon-Fri every 15-30min 6.30am-8pm, Sat & Sun every 30min 10am-6pm; $1 each way). First is the USS Constitution , also known as "Old Ironsides," the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world. Launched in Boston in 1797, it was prominent in the War of 1812. Every July 4 it is ceremonially turned around - sailed out into the bay and its cannon fired - mainly to equalize the weathering on its two sides. Unless it's closed due to ongoing rehabilitation work, free tours of the ship are led by costumed guides (daily 9.30am-3.50pm, ), or visit the USS Constitution Museum (daily: summer 9am-6pm; rest of year 10am-5pm; free). Above the museum, the Bunker Hill Monument sits on Breed's Hill, the actual site of the battle fought on June 17, 1775, which, although won by the British, did much to convince them that they could not hope to triumph in the end. A spiral staircase of almost three hundred steps leads to the top; a small museum (daily 9am-5pm; free) at the base has dated but informative exhibits on the battle.