Brian Miller

New Providence Travel, Rhode Island Brian Miller

New Providence Travel, Rhode Island. Atop the confluence of the Providence, Moshassuck and Woonasquatucket Rivers, Rhode Island's capital city offers some of the finest urban strolling in New England: around Brown University's historic campus on 18th-century College Hill, along the landscaped Riverwalk trail, and among downtown's handsome streets and lanes with their hipster-y cafes, art-house theaters, fusion restaurants and trendsetting bars. Once destined to become an industrial relic, Providence's fate was spared when Buddy Cianci, its then controversial two-time mayor, rolled out a plan to revitalize the downtown core by rerouting subterranean rivers, reclaiming land and restoring historic facades. It created a city where history's treasures are integrated into a creative present, not simply memorialized; where three centuries of architectural styles are unified in colorful urban streetscapes that are at once bold, beautiful and cooler than cool.