Our Countryside: The Berkshires
The Berkshires might be one of my favorite places to be in the entire world. I’ve visited the Berkshires three times in the past five years and every time I can’t wait to go back. Here are my top three things you should see in the Berkshires.
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is a music festival and venue renowned for being the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The grounds are absolutely stunning and I’ve seen shows in multiple different stages on the campus. While the Tanglewood Shed might be the most famous of the stages, my favorite place to listen to concerts is the Ozawa Hall. Ozawa Hall is a more intimate space and they tend to hold Masterclasses there.
I am huge fan of the cellist Yo-Yo Ma, so it’s perfect that he frequents performances at Tanglewood. Ma himself loves the Berkshires, as he has a home close to Tanglewood. Once, when I was staying in an Airbnb near Tanglewood, the host told us that he had once been a window cleaner at Yo-Yo Ma’s home. I know this isn’t the most insane celebrity connection, but at least I can say that I stayed at Yo-Yo Ma’s former window cleaners’ house!
The Mount
I know that touring old, historic homes isn’t for everyone, but I absolutely adore touring homes. The Mount is the home that Edith Wharton personally designed for herself— she even wrote an entire novel about her design principles. Edith Wharton was a famous American writer and designer. She was known for writing in bed and throwing the pages onto the ground when she was finished, so it was crazy to stand in the very room where she once struck literary genius and promenade across the very floor the first pages of her novels were once strewn across. I also really enjoyed learning about how she had a small, circular dinner table that would allow for easier conversation. She even had a dedicated area for her dogs under the table!
Norman Rockwell Museum
I was sitting in the backseat of the car, reading Midnight Sun by Stephanie Myers. Myers briefly mentioned Norman Rockwell in the novel when I was on the way to his museum in the Berkshires, which I found to be a crazy coincidence. I like Norman Rockwell’s art, especially “Marriage License,” “Dancing to a Cello,” and “Lincoln for the Defense.” This museum was one of my favorites and had so much to see. While the entire group I went with wasn’t all too keen on visiting this museum, never mind, any museum, I think they did actually enjoy it.
