Secret Boston

Far from the crowds and the usual cliches, Boston is a reserve of well-concealed treasures only revealed to those who know how to wander off the beaten track, whether residents or visitors. Cower before a Viking, conjure the ghosts of a lost convent, sit on an unsittable bench, artistically arrange abandoned rocking horses, worship a cod, roam ruins of a zoo, tour a dozen enormous eggs perched on an island, honor the forebears of Excel spreadsheets, lose yourself in a trippy Russian artistic dreamscape hidden in a Masonic Hall, honor a huge pear, rent a dragon, find Harvard's secret pig, take a mini-gondola ride through teeny Venice, fall in love with a donkey, kiss President Jackson's lips, read 20, 000 cookbooks, appreciate bad art, dress up as a marshmallow, hold a cremated elephant in a peanut butter jar.