Chicago: America's Most Architecturally Magnificent City

Millennium Park is Chicago's most visited attraction and one of the finest urban parks in the United States — a 24.5-acre park in the heart of the Loop, completed in 2004, anchored by the Cloud Gate sculpture ('The Bean'), the Jay Pritzker Pavilion (a Frank Gehry-designed outdoor concert venue that hosts the free Grant Park Music Festival every summer), Crown Fountain (two 50-foot LED towers that display faces of Chicago residents and 'spit' water in summer), and the Lurie Garden (2.5 acres of native plantings). The park receives approximately 25 million visitors per year and is entirely free. Cloud Gate — a 110-ton kidney-bean-shaped ellipse of polished stainless steel by artist Anish Kapoor — reflects a distorted panorama of the skyline in its mercury-like surface and is the most widely photographed public sculpture in the United States.

The Art Institute of Chicago is one of the finest art museums in the United States and the world — a collection of approximately 300,000 objects including the greatest collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings outside of France (including Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Grant Wood's American Gothic, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, and 33 Monet paintings). The Modern Wing (designed by Renzo Piano) is one of the finest museum buildings in America. Entry $25 for adults; free every Thursday for Illinois residents.

The Chicago Architecture Center offers the city's most renowned river architecture boat tour — a 90-minute narrated cruise along the Chicago River through the Loop canyon of skyscrapers, identifying buildings by architect, date, and style. This tour is considered the single finest way to understand Chicago's architectural heritage — the river-level perspective reveals design details invisible from street level, and the concentration of landmark buildings along the river has no parallel anywhere in the world. Tours run daily from the Riverwalk; book at architecture.org.

The Chicago Riverwalk is a 1.25-mile linear park along the main branch of the Chicago River through the Loop — bars, restaurants, kayak rentals, and public art installations at water level, with the spectacular canyon of skyscrapers rising above. The Riverwalk connects to the lakefront park system via the riverfront, and provides the finest street-level architecture viewing in Chicago.

Chicago's food identity is built on two pillars: deep dish pizza (the city's most internationally recognized culinary contribution) and a world-class fine dining scene that has produced more James Beard Award winners than almost any other American city. The West Loop/Fulton Market neighborhood is now the most exciting restaurant corridor in the city — Restaurant Row on Randolph Street and the cluster of acclaimed restaurants in the former meatpacking district around Fulton Market.

Deep dish pizza is ordered at Lou Malnati's (the most consistent), Pequod's (the cult favorite — a caramelized cheese crust that distinguishes it from all others), and Giordano's (the tourist institution). Deep dish takes 45 minutes to cook — call ahead or order when seated immediately. The Chicago-style hot dog (Vienna Beef frank in a poppy seed bun with yellow mustard, neon relish, tomato, onion, pickle spear, sport peppers, and celery salt — never ketchup) is the other essential street food.

The Restaurant Row on Randolph Street in the West Loop includes Alinea (three Michelin stars — the most technically ambitious and conceptually original restaurant in America, a 20-course theatrical experience starting at $395 per person), Girl & the Goat (Stephanie Izard, James Beard winner), and dozens of others. The Chicago deep dish pizza debate is ongoing and passionate; the craft cocktail scene (The Violet Hour, Three Dots and a Dash) is among the finest in the US.