It’s just a f-ing bell with a crack in it.ĭO go to the Famous 4th Street Delicatessen on Fourth and Bainbridge Streets. The collection is said to be worth in the range of $25 billion.ĭON’T feel obligated to see the Liberty Bell. Then walk about five minutes down the Ben Franklin Parkway to the Barnes Foundation museum, home to the greatest single art collection ever amassed by an individual, the very eccentric Albert Barnes. But keep going into the Philadelphia Museum of Art, one of the finest in the world. It is charming, sophisticated, surprising and vibrant. But the city has grown leaps and bounds since then. It does to a degree embody the idiosyncratic working class ethos of the city. Be happy that you are not in New York, which has torn down everything historic, or Columbus, which of course has nothing historic.ĭON’T make the pilgrimage to the statue of Rocky at the foot of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps. They are small and intimate and the food stunning and the cost reasonable.ĭO wander the city, in particular the tiny alleyway streets that contain some of the most marvelous rowhouse residences in the country.

Instead satisfy your cravings in what is America's most interesting and diverse culinary city. Then they are almost worth the guilt you will inevitably feel because you just ate one and likely ingested fifty or sixty thousand calories. They are gnarly and fundamentally deranged in conception. As for your luggage …ĭON’T come near a cheesesteak. In fact, offer to man the beverage cart yourself as an offering of peace and good will. If you are unfortunate enough to fly, DO NOT under any circumstances ask the flight attendant for anything. The good news is that if you are flying US Airways (or for that matter American once the merger is complete), you will never get here anyway because your flight will be canceled. It’s difficult since the airline, along with merger partner American Airlines, is responsible for about 70 percent of flight traffic in and out of Philadelphia. He is singlehandedly responsible by the force of his enthusiasm for making the city what it is today.ĭON’T fly US Airways into the city. He has the politician’s knack for meeting you for the first time and acting like he has known you all his life. Gore detested him because he made the mistake of having a personality.) He is the city’s greatest cheerleader.

(In between he was head of the Democratic National Committee when Al Gore ran for president in 2000. He was the city’s mayor from 1992 to 2000 and then governor from 2003 to 2011. DON’T be alarmed if it feels like you are seeing Ed Rendell at all places at all times.

A Prayer for the City by H.G. Bissinger