Just over a mile northeast from downtown, the land rises suddenly and the streets - narrow courses with tight corners and abrupt dead ends - start to conform to the contours of Mount Adams . Century-old townhouses coexist with avant-garde galleries, stylish boutiques, trendy gift shops and international restaurants. During the late nineteenth century, the elegant dining rooms of Mount Adams entertained the rich and famous eager to escape the squalor and noise of the Basin. Today its lively bars attract yuppies, students, hedonists and iconoclasts from all over the city. From downtown, take a taxi or #49 bus.

Adjacent to this tightly packed neighborhood are the rolling lawns, verdant copses and scenic overlooks of Eden Park , its features reflected in the new Mirror Lake , a man-made pool installed as part of the city's Millenium Project. A loop road at the northern end of the park leads to the Cincinnati Art Museum on Art Museum Drive (Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-6pm; $5, free Sat; tel 513/721-5204, ). Its one hundred labyrinthine galleries span five thousand years, taking in an excellent Islamic collection as well as a solid selection of European and American paintings by the likes of Matisse, Monet, Picasso, Edward Hopper and Grant Wood.

Mount Adams and Eden Park

• Mount Adams and Eden Park

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