Go Now And Be Nicely Surprised! Pittsburgh, USA
As new flights from the UK touch down in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this month, it’s time to embrace a city that swapped industrial grit for a buzzing food scene, rugged trails and pop art.
The great US writer Willa Cather once described Pittsburgh as “more vital, more creative [and] more hungry for culture than New York”, and it still has a ring of truth a century on. The City of Bridges, built at the confl ux of three great rivers, has more poetry about it than its midAtlantic industrial reputation might suggest.
Nowadays, it’s an altogether hipper aff air. As well as being the birthplace of pop art icon Andy Warhol and a sketchpad for iconic architects such as the late Frank Lloyd Wright, a slick art scene still bubbles alongside the sports stadia that dominate local passions. Then there’s its setting: on the banks of the Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers. Kayaking trips and the Three Rivers Heritage Trail (40km) all skirt their waters, while the city also stands at the gateway to the Great Allegheny Passage, an iconic trail that follows old rail lines up into the scenic Laurel Highlands.
It’s easy to fi nd something that catches the eye here. Northside is known for its museums as well as the vast Heinz Field (whether you care for American football or not, seeing the Steelers play is a rite of passage), while the Strip District and Lawrenceville are all about boutiques, distilleries and dining the sort of places where ‘wagyu short-rib taco’ is not a dirty phrase.
It all stems from an ongoing tech boom driving youth to the suburbs. But Downtown is the still the heart of Pittsburgh, from the riverfront to the always exciting Wood Street Galleries, which turned an old light rail stop into a busy artistic hub.
Try to arrive for summer, when the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival (7 16 June) marks its 60th anniversary. Across ten days, free art and music lights up Downtown from the Cultural District, known for its theatres, galleries and jazz bars, to the lush Pointe State Park, where the oldest building in the city, the 18th century Fort Pitt Block House, still proudly stands.
It isn’t glamorous but there’s a rugged, artsy energy to Pittsburgh that isn’t easily defi ned. As Cather once declared, it’s a “hungry” city. Perhaps that’s what makes it so fun.