The unattractive modern capital of Connecticut, HARTFORD , on the Connecticut River, is also the insurance center of the United States. Its central gold-domed state capitol , sitting on a hill in Bushnell Park, houses a small museum of Connecticut history; free tours of the capitol are available during the week from 9.15am until 1.15pm (July and Aug until 2.15pm; April-Oct Sat 10.15am-2.15pm). Marginally more thrilling is the antique merry-go-round in the park, which gives jangling rides for 50¢. The Museum of Connecticut History , across the road at 231 Capitol Ave, holds Colt rifles and revolvers and the desk at which Abraham Lincoln signed the paper that emancipated all slaves during the Civil War (Mon-Fri 9am-4pm, Sat 10am-4pm, Sun noon-4pm; free).

Hartford's pride and joy is the Greek revival Wadsworth Atheneum , 600 Main St, the nation's oldest continuously operating public art museum, holding some 45,000 pieces, among which are many fine and decorative arts, as well as Old Masters including Rubens' The Return of the Holy Family from Egypt and, in the French Impressionists collection, Renoir's Monet Painting in His Garden at Argenteuil . Lectures and films are put on at the Atheneum Theater, and there's an excellent café, too (Tues-Sun 11am-5pm; $7, free all day Thurs & before noon Sat).

About a mile west of downtown Hartford on Hwy-4, a hilltop community known as Nook Farm was home in the 1880s to next-door neighbors Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe . Today their Victorian homes, furnished much as they were then, are open for tours (Twain house summer Mon-Sat 9.30am-4pm, Sun noon-4pm; rest of year Mon & Wed-Sat 9.30am-4pm, Sun noon-4pm; $9; Stowe house year-round Tues-Sat 9.30am-4pm, Sun noon-4pm; open Mon June to mid-Oct and in Dec; $6.50). Twain lived at 351 Farmington Ave from 1874 until 1891, writing many of his classic works including Huckleberry Finn , and he spent a fair portion of his publishing royalties building and redecorating this outrageously ornate home, with its unusual black-and-orange brickwork and luxurious Tiffany stained-glass interior.