Chris Leadbeater experiences the extremes of Nantucket island, the glitzy Massachusetts getaway popular with holidaying New Yorkers.

"You're meant to do three things while at Harvard," expat and ivy-league graduate Lara Markstein tells me. "One is to pee on John Harvard's foot."

Along with the undeniable appeal of seeing Harvard, the oldest American university, Boston also offers architectural design fit for the modern eye.