It has been a pleasure to have had Newport for my distraction this week; we are almost half way through September and no one mentions the "H" word. And, it also allowed me to look away from the rapidly deteriorating situation at The Palace.

Any visit to Newprt should begin--just as the early settlers' did, at the wharf. This mix of 17th and 18th century buildings still serve as taverns and roomin houses. (I would love to stay on a rooming house on the wharf; it sounds so romantic.
From there you begin the inevitable walk up the hill and find the very 17th centry homes which Doris Duke saved from demolision through buying them all up and re-selling as low prices by contract to restore and keep them original.
The further you walk up the hill, the better the homes get.

Although there are some (owned by the same person I hear) who keep them in the same, dilapidated shape they got them in. I don't know wh;y The City doesn't either "make" them spruce them up or take them from them.