And yes, Providence is fantastic. Super walkable, multiple neighborhoods outside of downtown with bustling, active street life (someone needs to do photo threads on Thayer Street, Gano, PC, and Federal Hill), lots of cultural amenities cities and metros 2-3x its size lack, and a dense, intact, thriving Northeastern downtown. Federal Hill is the most authentic Little Italy left IMO, moreso than the North End and possibly moreso than the NYC Italian hoods I admittedly am not on top of. There's also a funky vibe from all the RISD and Johnson & Wales students (and Brown, I guess
) that oddly comes across stronger than you get in Boston, despite Boston having a much higher volume and density of students. Thayer Street is funkier than Huntington Ave. Providence (city and metro) is the most Portuguese area of the country, and this is deliciously reflected in the restaurant, bakery, and grocer landscape.
People like to say Providence is a mini-Boston; that's not wrong, but it also does Providence a disservice by not letting its uniqueness come through.