How do you really know New York?
New York (USA) - city of tours. I thought for a long time why standard tours are often not catchy, and these - on the contrary - are remembered. The answer is simple: behind them are not “industry giants,” but locals who do what they truly love.
Small groups, live stories and itineraries outside the hiking trails are what distinguishes such walks. Below are my favorite options in the city that are worth taking first.
1) Discover Brooklyn's Pizza
Pizza and New York are like bread and butter. On a tour of Brooklyn’s pizzerias, you don’t just sample the best bits of the city: you listen to a detailed, parochial story – for example, the fact that the “slices” as we know them only appeared in the 1940s.
With a local conductor, pizza becomes more than just a meal - it's a lively tale of migration, neighborhoods and changing tastes.
(2) Drawing masterpieces at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met)
This experience is for those who like to “touch” art with their hands. Meeting at The Met with an experienced artist X - and you go to the mini-plein air through the halls: warm-ups for the hand, express sketching lessons and stops near sculptures and paintings to draw them with your own strokes.
A couple of strokes - and before you is no longer a "museum exhibit", but the history of technology, style and human destinies. With a local artist, the tour turns into a personal master class and an interesting conversation about how to look at art in a new way.
(3) Following the African American History of Lower Manhattan
This walking tour begins at the National Museum of the Indians of America and leads through layers of history: from Bowling Green (where enslaved Africans worked and lived), through the remains of Fort Amsterdam, to places associated with the homes of slaves of the XVII century.
The route passes Wall Street and you will hear about its past as a slave market, stop by Federal Hall, a former free African-American oyster house, walk through Foley Square (formerly the place of executions) and finish at the African Burial Ground National Monument. Larry is one of the best guides I've ever met: fascinating, humorous, and an incredible depth of knowledge. With it, a walk turns into a live lecture on urban history - and that's something you won't read in a guidebook.
4 Make and taste your own New York pizza. - Paulie Gee's
If you want to not only eat, but also create – go to Paulie Gee’s in Greenpoint. Logan will tell you about the evolution of New York pizza, show you how to mold dough, offer a choice of sauces and toppings, and then you will send your cake to a wood-burning oven.
After – celebration: tasting your work and restaurant specialties. Greenpoint is an area that many tourists miss, so after the master class, I advise you to walk there, feel the “local” New York. With a local host, the process will become more soulful and cognitive.
On your next visit to New York, be sure to try such events!
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Source of information: personalguide
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