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Home to Yale University and pristine colonial villages, Connecticut is deeply rooted in the history and character of New England with charming inns, galleries & museums in abundance.
Tucked neatly between Massachusetts, New York State, Rhode Island and the waters of the Long Island Sound, Connecticut presents a gentle, almost English landscape dotted with picturesque colonial villages of white clapboard buildings and manicured lawns, evocative of old money and ‘Ivy League’ connections. The state’s dominant feature is the Connecticut River, which bisects the state and historically proved a vital route during the settlement and industrialisation of Connecticut.
The ‘Constitution State’, Connecticut has played a historic role in shaping the United States. Formed by colonists from Massachusetts led by Thomas Hooker in the 1662, Connecticut was the first colony to establish a constitution, the Fundamental Orders of 1689, which later formed the basis of the United States Constitution. The state’s wealth was built up throughout the industrial 18th and 19th centuries during which the Connecticut was famous for manufacturing among other things Colt revolvers, Winchester rifles and insurance policies. This prosperity has helped Connecticut gain the highest per capita income and highest average household income in the Untied States.
Connecticut’s state capital is Hartford, the nerve centre of America’s multi billion dollar insurance industry. Here you’ll find the homes of two of America’s most influential writers of the 19th century; Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The city’s centrepiece is the gardens of Elizabeth Park, with 800 varieties of rose, while Hartford is home to America’s oldest public art museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum of Art and the Colt Armory, dedicated to the Colt 45 invented by Hartford resident Sam Colt.
As the location of Yale University, New Haven is undoubtedly Connecticut’s most famous city. Situated on the coast of the Long Island Sound, New Haven was an established maritime centre during the 19th Century, but it is as a centre of learning that the city is most renowned. Founded in 1701 and established in New Haven 15 years later, Yale University has schooled a number of U.S. presidents along with Nobel and Pulitzer prize winners. Free guided-tours take visitors around Yale’s peaceful quads and ivy clad halls (which have given rise to the term Ivy League), while the Yale University Art Gallery and Yale Center for British Art are among the university’s excellent cultural institutions.
Outside of New Haven and Hartford you’ll a number of old colonial towns such as Essex along the Connecticut River and Litchfield in the Litchfield Hills, which are full of picture postcard charm and attract day-trippers from New York. While Connecticut is also the unlikely home of two of the world’s biggest casinos, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort, just seven miles apart, with gaming, shopping and golfing alongside regular big sporting and musical events.
With easy access to the cities of Boston in the north-east and New York to the south-west, Connecticut provides a perfect location for exploring these two great American cities, while at the same time relaxing in the peace and tranquillity of rural New England.
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