Philadelphia today is an inseparable mix of old and new. Scratch the surface of William Penn's "green countrie towne" and you'll find both a wealth of history and plenty of modern distractions.

Philadelphia has the largest surviving district of original colonial homes and shops in the country, with dozens of treasures in and around Independence National Historical Park. It boasts the most historic square mile in America, the place where the United States was conceived, declared, and ratified--and the city and federal governments are investing heavily to show this area off and teach its lessons. Philadelphia offers some of the best dining values and several of the finest restaurants in America. The city is a stroller's paradise of restored Georgian and Federal structures integrated with smart shops and contemporary row house courts to create a working urban environment. It's a center of professional and amateur sports, with more than 9,800 acres of parkland within the city limits. It's a city filled with art, crafts, and music for every taste, with boulevards made for street fairs and parades all year long. From row-house boutiques to the Second Continental Congress's favorite tavern, from an Ivy League campus to street artists and musicians, from gleaming skyscrapers to Italian marketplaces, Philadelphia is a city of the unexpected.

The earlier colonial view of Philadelphians as reflective, sophisticated, and tolerant has been replaced by the brash, good-hearted "Rocky" stereotype. Philadelphia is "The place that loves you back," as the current marketing campaign puts it. Of course, both characterizations have some grain of truth to them. There's a tremendous diversity among the 1.5 million residents of this city, spread over 129 square miles--there's the opportunity to sink into the plush seats at the new Kimmel Center and sample gourmet cuisine in the dining room of Zanzibar Blue, and there's also the chance to perch in the bleachers of Veterans Stadium.

Geographically, Philadelphia sits pretty. Some 60 miles inland, it's the country's busiest freshwater port, controlling the Delaware Valley. Philadelphia occupies a tongue of land at the confluence of the Delaware--one of the largest U.S. rivers feeding into the Atlantic--and the Schuylkill (school-kill) rivers. The original settlement, and the heart of Center City today, is the band of solid ground about 5 miles north of the junction's marshland. Since then, of course, the city has drained and used the entire tongue to the south and has exploded into the northeast and northwest. The city is a natural stopping place between New York and Washington, D.C., with easy access to both by rail and road. And the casinos and beaches of Atlantic City, the Revolutionary War sites of Valley Forge and Brandywine, the great Du Pont family mansions, and Pennsylvania Dutch country all lie within 90 minutes of the city.