More Than a Feeling: A Boston Travelogue

Boston dates back to the 1630 purchase of what is now Boston Common from William Blaxton by Puritan colonists from England. It started out as a peninsula with three hills (the Trimount), but developers in the 18th and 19th centuries excavated the hills to fill in the back bay (an estuary of the Charles River) and increase the city's land area (only Beacon Hill remains partially intact).

All in all, Boston proper is home to six hundred thousand people on 130 square kilometres (50 square miles), for a population density of 4,600 people per square kilometre (12,000 per square mile). Only New York, Chicago and San Francisco in the US are denser. Between its density, its beautiful architecture and its wide sidewalks with shade trees, Boston is tremendously walkable.