First, banish that image you had in your head of Pittsburgh as a smoky, grimy industrial town. The NFL team may still be the Steelers, but the way an increasing number of folks in these precincts of western Pennsylvania make their living is from the knowledge industry. High-tech flourishes here.
Pittsburgh is an amazing place, and there are lots of ways you can enjoy it for free:
- Know that within the town’s Golden Triangle you can ride the “T,” that the local subway, gratis. Stops include Wood Street Station, US Steel Tower, First Avenue Garage and Gateway Center.
- Get off the T for a bit of a walkabout. You can download an hours-long MP3 walking tour of downtown and get a perspective on what made – and makes – this city tick. The tours are created and recorded by Robert Morris University students and available in ten languages.
- USA Weekend has labeled the nighttime spectacle from atop Mt. Washington “the second most beautiful in America.” Take a drive up there and see why. The daytime vista isn’t bad either. Pair it with a trip to Emerald View Park, a 280-acres Pittsburgh green space.
- Get inside the heads of some of the best minds around. The Frick Art & Historical Center hosts an Art at Noon series in the Frick Museum Auditorium. Speakers discuss music, literature and anthropology – all in relation to current Frick exhibitions.
- Gallery crawls are always popular, especially in Pittsburgh. They’re sited in the city’s consummately cool Cultural District. Stroll around a bit. Drink in the fertile, artsy atmosphere of a quartet of downtown neighborhoods and see why the arts flourish in the Steel City.
- What’s art without music? The third Thursday of each month WYEP 91.3 FM hosts free performances. Doors open at 6:30pm and the show starts half an hour later.
(Image: sakeeb)
