Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum opened on 1 January 1903 in a building that Gardner had designed to evoke a fifteenth-century Venetian palace. It was built new in Boston rather than shipped from Italy, and her will set up an endowment and asked that the collection be shown permanently for the education and enjoyment of the public. The result is a museum that feels more like a private house than a gallery, with paintings, furniture, textiles and objects arranged in rooms much as she left them.

At the centre is the garden courtyard under a glass roof, framed by three floors of galleries and laid with a Roman mosaic, with plantings that change through the seasons. Among the best-known works are Titian's The Rape of Europa, John Singer Sargent's El Jaleo, an early Rembrandt self-portrait and Botticelli's The Story of Lucretia. The museum is also known for the theft of 18 March 1990, when thieves posing as police officers took 13 works, including Vermeer's The Concert. None has been recovered, and empty frames still hang in the Dutch Room. A modern wing designed by Renzo Piano was completed in 2012.

Advance timed tickets are recommended, as popular entry times sell out and tickets may not be available at the door. Under-18s go free, and anyone named Isabella gets free lifetime admission with a reservation made at least 24 hours ahead. Free Thursday Nights run from 5pm to 9pm each Thursday, and there are free days on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples' Day, with tickets released two weeks in advance. The museum is closed on several holidays, including Patriots' Day, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

Bags must be no larger than 12 by 12 by 3 inches, and tripods and selfie sticks are not allowed. Food and drink must stay out of the galleries and can be left at the coat check or in self-serve lockers; Café G is the place for lunch or coffee. Allow two hours for an unhurried visit, which suits couples, solo travellers and anyone with an interest in art or architecture.

The museum is in the Fenway, a few minutes on foot from the Museum of Fine Arts on Huntington Avenue, so the two make a natural pairing for a full day of art. The museum's website has a directions and parking page for planning the journey.