“The best of America, the best of New England,” is how the American artist Norman Rockwell characterized the small town of Stockbridge. Sequestered in a green valley, surrounded by the rolling Berkshire Hills, and just 2.5 hours north of New York City and two hours west of Boston, Stockbridge is both a gateway to the great Massachusetts outdoors and one of the region’s cultural hubs. In the summer, the Tanglewood Festival showcases music ranging from choral symphonies to contemporary jazz. And as Christmas approaches, the town’s snow-swathed Main Street celebrates with a range of activities, topped off by a recreation of the 1950s Norman Rockwell painting that fixed the street in the American imagination. Beyond the sparkle of the town rise wooded hills and hikers can use Stockbridge as a launching point for stretches of the Appalachian Trail.
