The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
A confection of eccentricity, this faux Venetian palazzo on the fringe of the Fenway was first Mrs. Gardner’s home and then, once it was packed full enough of jaw-dropping European paintings to be a museum, it, well, became a museum. (Mrs. Gardner lived in suites upstairs the last years of her life as the public perused her collection below.) A perennial magnet for tourists, locals may tire a tad of the palazzo’s static display (a display studded, it should be said, with Titian, Botticelli, Rembrandt, and Sargent, to name a few; just goes to show how spoiled for art we are in this town). But if that’s the case, the museum’s vibrant temporary exhibition space in its Renzo Piano-designed contemporary wing keeps things fresh, as does a robust roster of concerts, lectures, and performances in its state-of-the-art theater.
Things to do in Boston today for visitors, residents to discover
