Best place to people-watch
Crowds can be most beguiling to observe when they're in the throes of emotion. And sports fans are almost as good as soap-opera characters when it comes to wearing their hearts on their sleeves. Take, for instance, the moment when every single person shrieks with joy or gasps as if on cue. There's no better outlet for getting an up-close look at the agony and ecstasy of the mob than at Fenway Park, where a common hope defies age, size, and livelihood - especially this year. For a less-rambunctious scene - and a lot more wardrobe diversity - perch yourself across the river in Harvard Square, where the intellectual glitterati rub elbows with slacker trendsetters and tourists galore. Always a memorable sight is the expression on the faces of sophisticated vacationing Euros when they emerge from the T expecting to behold inspiring ivory towers, and instead find themselves confronted with what could be easily mistaken for a punk-rock revival or a Sid and Nancy look-alike contest. They proceed along, then pause before whatever earnest up-and-coming folkie is strumming to drown out the cries of the would-be evangelist nearby. And all around is the upscale elegance of the square's high-brow boutiques, which sit snugly up against distinctively dingy taverns and the shops from which alterna-kids' faux-fur-trimmed and punk-punctuated fashions spring eternal.

Fenway Park, Yawkey Way, Boston; Harvard Square, Cambridge.