CULTURAL MAGAZINE

Washington, D.C. is a city you can walk across, with wide-open avenues, front
porchesportici, old neighborhoods and river views. It was designed by a Parisian, Pierre L'Enfant, and it still feels that way. Because buildings cannot by law be higher than the width of the street they front, you can always see the sky. There are more than two dozen free museums, so you can absorb culture the way it was meant to be experienced - in short encounters in the midst of everyday life.
Now we take a look to 10 things you must see in this city.

United States Capitol

One fixture you can still access in post-9/11 Washington is the Capitol, and it is a
weirdbizzarro, strano and beautiful place. There are 540 rooms and almost as many lawmakerslegislatori, all connected by winding halls, tunnels and an underground train. To get inside, you have two choices: You can go on an official tour after getting tickets from a kiosk just outside the building or you can contact your state Senator or Representative to get a pass to the gallery and watch the place in action — or inaction, which is equally interesting.

For lunch and politico-spotting, crashimbucatevi one of the surprisingly decent, low-priced cafeterias in the Rayburn House Office Building or the Longworth House Office Building on Independence Avenue, or get a glass of wine and pasta at the upscale Sonoma on Pennsylvania Avenue, right behind the Library of Congress.

The National Mall

The best way to see most of Washington's monuments and museums is to stroll down the Mall, a greenwayzona verde presso un'area urbana crowned by the Capitol and lined with treasure all the way to the Lincoln Memorial.
Choose your own adventure, ramblingvagando in and out of museums and staying only as long as you'd like. If you have kids with you, take a break at the old-fashioned carousel in front of the Arts and Industries building, about halfway down the Mall. Or duckimmergetevi into the sculpture garden at the Hirshhorn Museum nearby. There's a lot to see, so you'll have to prioritize - or chill out and assume you'll be back one day.

The National Museum of American History is one museum not to be missed on the Mall, a massive collection of all things American - from Abraham Lincoln's top hat to the Nintendo Game Boy. Another sure thing on the Mall, the National Museum of Natural History has something for everyone in the family, from the femme to the fierce. The Hope Diamond is here, along with an insect zoo, an IMAX cinema and a hall full of dinosaurs.

International Spy Museum

This is one museum that is actually worthdegno paying for - especially if you're burned out on the more nutritious museums (which you will be any second now), or if you have children over age 10. The Spy Museum, one of D.C.'s most popular attractions, is noisy with films and interactive displays. But at the end of the day, this museum works because spies are cool, and so are KGB lipstick pistols and invisible-ink letters. Be sure to check out the exhibit on the Navajo codetalkerspersone che parlano in codice and the history of spying going back to Moses. Then have dinner at Zola, a sophisticated American restaurant adjacent to the Spy Museum. (Yes, D.C. now has a few sophisticated restaurants. Incredible but true.)

Washington National Cathedral

America does not have many truly impressive Gothic cathedrals, so the National Cathedral is one worth visiting. It is actually an Episcopal church, but Congress has designated it the National House of Prayer. Since 1907, it has been used for state funerals for three presidents, monthly emergency unity services during WWII, presidential prayer services and 9/11 memorial ceremonies. Half-hour tours are held throughout the day. It is strikingsorprendente and pleasantly removed from the rest of official D.C. in a more residential area. After your tour, head to 2 Amys for excellent Neapolitan-style pizza.

National Zoo

Just down the road from the Cathedral, the National Zoo is yet another free play zone brought to you by the Smithsonian. Meandergirovagando by the Giant Pandas, keep an eye out for the orangutans, which can travel freely on a system of cables 40 feet above your head, and if you have small children with you, make your way all the way down to the petting farm and the pizza-garden playground.

The U Street Corridor

At night, you have three main choices in D.C.: Georgetown, where the tourists
and frat boysmembri di associazioni studentesche go to party; Adams Morgan, where the frat boys go once they've graduated; and U Street, where you won't find any of the above.

The strip of bars, restaurants and boutiques runs for about eight blocks between 17th Street and 9th Street NW, in a neighborhood called Shaw. The birthplace of Duke Ellington, U Street was once a center of African-American culture. Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong were regulars. After the 1968 riots, the corridor sat mostly vacant for far too long. But it is now finally, fully revived, janglingsquillante with sound and motion after dark.

Check out D.C.'s best live-music venue, the 9:30 Club, just off the corridor at the corner of 9th Street and V Street NW. You can also find good, upscale restaurants and bars like Marvin, a bistro and bar with a rooftop lounge. But the icon of U Street is still Ben's Chili Bowl, a family-run, old-school chili-dog joint that opened in 1958 and stuck around when almost nothing else did.

Gravelly Point

To get a break from all the history and heritage, head across the Potomac River to Gravelly Point park (off the northbound George Washington Parkwayviale in Virginia). It's a
grassyerbosa  knollcollinetta known only to locals where you can watch airplanes come in (shockingly close to your head) for a landing just a few hundred feet away at Reagan National Airport. There is also a walking and biking path that runs along the river, plus a pretty view of Washington.

Malcolm X Park

One of the nicest and least appreciated parks in D.C. is a place officially called Meridian Hill Park but known to everyone as Malcolm X Park. Its 12 acres sit on a hill overlooking downtown and the monuments. John Quincy Adams lived in a mansion here after leaving the White House.

Today, there are spookysinistre, misteriose statues and cascading pools of water, more reminiscent of a neglected European chateau garden than a National Park Service tract. Visit late on a Sunday afternoon to dance to the sounds of the ad hoc drum circle that has been forming weekly since the 1950s.