Newport attractions

The Preservation Society of Newport County operates 11 Newport Mansions properties, including the Marble House. One of the first beaux-arts structures in the US, it was built between 1888 and 1892 as the Gilded Age summer cottage for William and Alva Vanderbilt. Inspired by the Petit Trianon in Versailles, the US$11 million mansion made mostly of marble became a National Historic Landmark in 2006.

Set against the picturesque backdrop of Newport Harbor and Narragansett Bay, Fort Adams State Park is a popular recreation area for swimming, sailing, fishing, and field games. The park also has a historic character thanks to sprawling Fort Adams, and is the home of major music festivals each summer.

The Breakers, the crown jewel of the Newport mansions and the summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, is an architectural and social mark of the Gilded Age, with 70 rooms, five stories, and a design modeled after 16th-century Italian Renaissance palaces. Inside, all the furnishings on view are original; outside, open-air terraces give way to breathtaking ocean views. If America had castles, this would surely be one of the greatest.