48 Hours in Pittsburgh

Arriving in Pittsburgh Friday night, we set out to see and do as much as possible with just 48 hours - hold on tight as we take you on some recommendations for a weekend in the Steel City...

Friday Night

Check-in: Renaissance Hotel, Downtown Pittsburgh
Right in the heart of the action on 6th St, the historic Renaissance Hotel is housed in a building dating from 1906, completely refurbished and reopened just a few years a go.

The staff were surprisingly unhelpful and cared little to make us feel welcome. With a big of haggling though we managed to persuade them to move us up from the fourth floor to the top floor - and the room offered some great views of the city and rivers.

Pittsburgh Steeler's Pep Rally @ Heinz Field
With the Steeler's big game the following weekend, we lucked out and arrived in time to experience the hype surrounding the city's Superbowl expectations with an organized Pep Rally at Heinz Field.

The honking and hollering on the roads around the stadium was as if they had already won the Superbowl!

PNC Park
With all the bedlam surrounding the pep rally, we opted to skip the taxi line and walk back over the bridge to the hotel via PNC Park.

Right next door to Heinz Field, this is home to the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball team and definitely worth the walk on the way back to the city.

Primantis
The Sandwich that made Pittsburgh famous...

The Primanti Brother's sandwich is said to have its origins in the city's steel days when blue collar workers needed a hot meal mid-shift that would keep them full all day long. However, the workers had neither the time nor the utensils for such a meal. By combining the sides of fries and coleslaw with the sandwich, a Pittsburgh staple was born.

Of note: Primanti Brothers made the list of "1,000 Places to See Before You Die in the USA and Canada," by Patricia Schultz.

Next, depending on what your in the mood for, Friday night is a great night to experience either a musical or some of Pittsburgh's nightlife.

Menopause the Musical

With a title like Menopause The Musical, we opted for the latter and headed to the South Side and counted over 40 bars driving from one end to the other! We were certainly spoiled for choice on where to drink!

South Side
With an unbelievable amount of bars, a pubcrawl up East Carson Street could be a weekend within itself!

Saturday

Sightseeing Around the City
We decided to check out some of Pittsburgh’s 89 neighborhoods. From the steps in the South Side slopes to Little Italy in Bloomfield, Pittsburgh’s eclectic neighborhoods are worth exploring.

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
Quite simply, stunning. The Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens have been inviting visitors to explore the beauty and mysteries of plants since 1893. Set amidst one of Pittsburgh's largest greenspace, Schenley Park, Phipps Conservatory stands as a cultural and architectural centerpiece of the city's Oakland neighborhood.

In recent decades, Phipps has evolved into one of the region's most vibrant, thriving cultural attractions, and is a great way to spend a crisp winter morning in the sun.

Cathedral of Learning

A local and national landmark, this is the centerpiece of the University of Pittsburgh's main campus in the Oakland neighborhood. Standing at 535 feet, the 42-story Late Gothic Revival Cathedral (above) is the tallest educational building in the western hemisphere and the third tallest educational building in the world.

Heinz Chapel
The Heinz Memorial Chapel began as a gift. Henry John Heinz, the founder of the H.J. Heinz Company, wanted to honor his mother, Anna Margaretta Heinz, with “a building” at the University. To this day, it still hosts hundreds of concerts, religious services, and weddings.

Fitzgerald Field House Dance-Off
Flicking through a copy of the Pitt News, we discovered a dance marathon taking place for charity and couldn't resist stopping in...

Raising $36,713.09, this was the most successful fundraiser in the history of Pitt's student organizations, obliterating the former record of $15,000. Full story is here

The Church Brew Works
This converted 1902 Catholic church offers a variety of brewed-on-site ales and lagers (the brewing equipment sits front-and-center, on what was once the altar) and a satisfying menu - even the original stained-glass windows are still in place!

A great place to stop for a relaxing pint after seeing the sights and sounds of Pittsburgh!

The Duquesne Incline & Mount Washington
A great place for a romantic dinner to round off the day, this nighttime view from Mount Washington was voted the the No. 2 beauty spot in America by USA Today.

The author wrote, "Standing atop Mount Washington, the steep hill that rises giddily on the city's south side, sightseers enjoy the unforgettable panorama of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers flowing together to create the mighty Ohio, that waterway so essential in the nation's settlement. The rivers cup downtown's lustrous Golden Triangle, where landmark skyscrapers thrust upward like rockets. At night, lights twinkle on no fewer than 15 bridges."

Sunday
Our original plan was to head to Shady Side for a massage for madame while I watched the football. We slept in and ordered a complimentary breakfast in bed before driving through on the way to:

Carnegie Museum of Natural History
From the discovery of Diplodocus carnegii to the skull of Samson, the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skull known to date, and the brand new, yet to be named, species of oviraptorosaur, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History has one of the finest dinosaur collections in the world.

Other exhibits include the Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems, the Alcoa Foundation Hall of American Indians, Polar World: Wyckoff Hall of Arctic Life, the Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt, the Benedum Hall of Geology and the Powdermill Nature Reserve.

Carnegie Museum of Art
The Hall of Architecture, with its collection of over 140 plaster casts of architectural masterpieces from the past survives today as the largest architectural cast collection in the country, rivaled internationally only by collections in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and in the Musee National des Monuments Français, Paris.

Having persisted through changes of taste and decades of public exhibition, the Hall of Architecture offers an opportunity to appreciate a cultural phenomenon of international scope.

Summary
Pittsburgh's diversity really surprised me and I was pleasantly surprised by just how much the city has to offer. This was a very fulfilling weekend and we didn't even get to the Andy Warhol Museum, the nearby ski resort, or even a Penguins or Pirates game.

Once renowned as the smokey Steel City, Pittsburgh has reinvented itself as cultural and entertainment city. From Heinz Hall to Hindu temples, from The Warhol to the Inclines, from Kennywood to a Steelers game ... Year round there seems like there is always tons to do here and I'd definitely love to come back to do it all again, in addition to the moments we missed.