Love or Hate Him, He Has a Nice House

I was actually a little surprised by this place.  I read about it in a few books, but for some reason, I pictured it as a small historic house in the middle of a highly condensed capital city.  The Mark Twain House and Museum is actually a pretty big mansion in more of the suburban area of Hartford, and it sits high on a hill with its own parking and museum center.  Unless you’re a literary nut or a huge Mark Twain fan, this is probably not a final destination for you, but it makes a nice diversion if you’re roadtripping it from NYC to Boston or vice versa.

We made our stop here on a sunny afternoon right around lunchtime.  The place was quiet with only a few folks walking around the lobby and gift shop.  I discovered that the house can only be seen via the tour, which ran about every 45 minutes and cost $15 per person.  We had just missed the 12 noon tour, and as I was in line to purchase tickets, the 12:45 tour sold out!  While I wasn’t planning to spend several hours here, I wasn’t about to leave either - so I bought tickets for the 1:30pm tour and decided to eat lunch in the area to kill some time.

Before our tour, we watched 15 minutes of the Ken Burns film on Mark Twain’s life.  It was interesting to learn how he grew up in Missouri and penned most of his famous work while in Hartford.  The museum also had two exhibits on many of Twain’s work and influence.  The section on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was perhaps the most interesting since the book was the most controversial piece he had written.  There was also a map of the schools and libraries around the country that have either challenged, removed or banned the book – even still today!

On to the tour of the house – unfortunately, no pictures were allowed.  Our guide was very bubbly, and she seemed to enjoy telling the story of how people in the area knew him as Samuel Clemens and that the house was designed by the family.  Inside, the house had an incredible design for the main visiting areas – the foyer, sitting room, dining room and library.  These areas were fancied up with unique wallpaper colors and intricate wood moldings, especially on the ceilings.  Apparently, the Clemens family wanted to make sure the parts of the house that most people saw was full of extravagant design and architecture – including an indoor garden that sits right off of the library, where supposedly Twain told hundreds of stories to guests.

Bottom left: Indoor garden area

The rest of the house was setup to see how the family lived with their daughters and servants.  One interesting piece was the design of their bed with angels sitting on the bedposts of the headboard and footboard.  They slept backwards with their heads against the footboard, so they could always face the main angels on the headboard to protect them.  The upstairs room was known as an area where Twain would smoke cigars, play billiards and write his material.  This was an intriguing area as you really get a feel of the environment he setup to be inspired to work on his best writings.

While I admit I am not a devoted Mark Twain fan, I do enjoy his work greatly and as required reading back in school, it was certainly interesting to see the place where he raised his family and felt inspired to write some of the most famous stories known.  I find the fact that he used his writings to try to impact the way people think about interracial relationships to be extremely bold and courageous.


Pin Stops Ranking: 2 Pins

While an excellent diversion to breakup a long drive between NYC and Boston, this place is probably most enjoyed by Mark Twain fans who are interested in seeing where he lived while penning some of his best work.  However, it is listed as one of the 1,000 Places to See Before You Die in the USA/Canada edition of the book.

For more on my Pinstop Rankings, check out this post.

Pin Stop at Pepe's

Line outside for Saturday lunch

If you've ever stopped by New Haven, Connecticut, you may have heard of "Frank Pepe."  This little pizzeria in the Wooster Square neighborhood has been around over 85 years and has become a local institution for its original tomato pies baked in a coal fired oven.  On a trip up to Boston, I stopped here to not surprisingly find a lunch line out the door on a Saturday.  After about a half hour wait, we snagged a booth and was able to order a sausage pie along with some white birch soda from Connecticut-based Foxon Park.  Supposedly, Pepe's white clam pizza (fresh clams, olive oil, garlic and oregano) is his specialty, but my lunch company were not the adventurous types, so we stuck with something more familiar.

The Pepe's atmosphere was simple - the booths were pretty standard, and the walls were decorated with a few pictures and articles on Frank Pepe, who established the place in 1925. Really, there wasn't much

to the decor.  However, as you walk in, you can't miss the opportunity to see them slide the pizzas right into the coal fired ovens using a long pizza paddle designed to shove the pizza deep into the oven.  They leave this area wide open for customers to salivate over watching them bake their pies to perfection (or perhaps imperfection as I'll explain in a moment).  I have heard stories that people claim the oven has been used so long that it now brings in extra flavor to the pizzas.

Now, I love New York-style pizza, and I'm a big fan of places like Grimaldi's, but I found this pizza to be different.  It came out thick, misshapen and burnt in spots.  It wasn't perfectly rounded or evenly symmetrical, and it wasn't thin and crunchy or over-the-top cheesy.  However, it was extremely delicious!  The imperfections gave this pie lots of character without any fancy presentation - what the locals call, "real pizza."  The sausage was hearty and the slices were generous.  It definitely hit the spot, leaving the four of us at our table very satisfied. As one of the oldest pizzerias in the country, it's certainly worth a stop for a meal if you get a chance to drop by this side of CT.