Philadelphia City Tour, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

My Philadelphia city tour clearly showed the city deserved its moniker as “City of Sisterly Love.” It offered me history, art and the best tomato pie on my recent trip.

Frankly, I never even thought about making a trip to sightsee in Philadelphia, pre-pandemic. It was just a city I waved at on I-95 en route to its International Airport. But now that I am grounded due to the pandemic, I choose to explore Philadelphia’s Parkway Museum District. It stretches from the City Hall to the Philadelphia Museum of Art on the Ben Franklin Parkway.

My first rule of travel is always book a walking tour on Day One of the trips so I can learn the good and the bad from your guide. So I had to laugh out loud when I saw a 2:30 pm tour titled “ The Good, The Bad, The Philly ” by Free Tours on Foot. I ended up with a private guided tour with Toni, one of the funniest walking guides I have ever encountered. She is 79 years old and loves to tell the occasional off-color joke.

Rather than parading by Philadelphia’s esteemed historical sites (with absolutely no idea of their significance), I chose to see Philly through a resident’s eyes (aka Toni). Expect a comedy routine.

For example, Toni’s advice if you are ever asked a question about who did what in Philly? “Say Ben!” Of course, she means Benjamin Franklin, the city’s biggest hero. He is even more famous than Rocky (played by Sylvester Stallone.) But I expect more people try to run up “Rocky’s steps” than conduct Ben’s electricity experiments. (Fun fact: there are 72 stone steps leading up to the entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.) ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).