In the closing pages of Gone With the Wind, Rhett tells Scarlett that he's going back home to Charleston, where he can find "the calm dignity life can have when it's lived by gentle folks, the genial grace of days that are gone. When I lived those days I didn't realize the slow charm of them." In spite of all the changes and upheavals over the years, Rhett's endorsement of Charleston still holds true.

If the Old South still lives throughout South Carolina's Low Country, it positively thrives in Charleston. All our romantic notions of antebellum days--stately homes, courtly manners, gracious hospitality, and, above all, gentle dignity--are facts of everyday life in this old city, even though there are a few scoundrels here and there, including an impressive roster of pirates, patriots, and presidents.

Its history may be dotted with earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, and Yankee bombardments, but Charleston remains one of the best-preserved cities in the Old South. It boasts 73 pre-Revolutionary buildings, 136 from the late 18th century, and more than 600 built before the 1840s. With its cobblestone streets and horse-drawn carriages, Charleston is a place of visual images and sensory pleasures. Tea, jasmine, and wisteria fragrances fill the air; the aroma of she-crab soup (the local favorite, a version of cream-of-crab soup) wafts from sidewalk cafes; and antebellum architecture graces the historic cityscape. "No wonder they're so full of themselves," said an envious visitor from Columbia, which may be the state capital, but doesn't have Charleston's style and grace.

In its annual reader survey, Conde Nast Traveler consistently names Charleston as the fourth top city to visit in America, ahead of such perennial favorites as New York, Seattle, and San Antonio. Visitors are drawn here from all over the world--in fact, it's now quite common to hear German and French spoken along with English on the streets.

Charleston is and always has been a city of culture, exemplified by the paintings of Elizabeth O'Neill Verner, the decorative ironwork of Philip Simons, and even Ira Gershwin's Porgy and Bess--and most definitely by the internationally renowned Spoleto Festival USA.

Does this city have a modern side? Yes, but it's well hidden. Chic shops abound, as do a few supermodern hotels. But you don't come to Charleston for anything cutting edge. You come to glimpse an almost-forgotten era.