Wander just north of downtown Syracuse and you’ll find a number of Italian restaurants and bakeries– remnants of an ethnic enclave that initially settled the area more than a century ago. There’s the Columbus Bakery (502 Pearl St.), where loaves of Italian bread baked at the back of the room cool on shelves just behind the front counter much as they have since 1895. There’s Biscotti Café, (741 N. Salina St.) which offers a variety of cannoli, gelato and other Italian confectionary options. And then there’s Francesca’s (545 N. Salina St.), one of Syracuse’s most popular restaurants known for two Central New York regional specialties:  chicken riggies (rigatoni pasta served with chunks of boneless chicken, peppers and onions and tossed in a vodka sauce) and Utica Greens (cooked escarole tossed with chicken stock, olive oil, garlic, prosciutto, cheese and baked in the oven with bread crumbs).

Other neighborhood haunts include Harrison Bakery (1306 W. Genesee St.) on the city’s West Side, a Syracuse institution since 1948 best known for serving the half-moon cookie. The half-moon is a spongy, fluffy sugar cookie topped with half vanilla frosting and half chocolate frosting that first originated in Central New York a century ago. Whether the half-moon or its similar cookie cousin, the black and white in New York City (of Seinfeld fame) came first is an ongoing confectionery debate.

If you have only one breakfast in Syracuse, make it at Mother’s Cupboard, (3709 James St.) a diner within a small red shack that serves enormous portions, including pancakes the size of plates and a frittata that more closely resembles a heaping scramble of eggs, potatoes, peppers, onions, pepperoni and sausage (calling these scrambles “frittatas” is a Syracuse thing). Arrive early to grab one of the handful of seats at the counter to watch staff prepare the food at this cash-only diner that made it onto The Travel Channel’s “Man Vs. Food” for its six-pound frittata challenge.

Taste flavors from around the world at the brand new Salt City Market (484 S. Salina St.) in downtown Syracuse. The spacious downtown food court that opened earlier this year features a dozen different vendors serving cuisine from Burma, Vietnam, the Middle East and southern and soul food options. The market reflects the growing diversity of Syracuse and the role new arrivals from around the world have played in broadening the city’s culinary scene.

Stretch your legs with a walk through downtown Syracuse that begins at Armory Square,  a repurposed late-19th century warehouse district that features the city’s buzziest area of restaurants, bars, cafes and boutiques. Proceed up South Clinton Street to Clinton Square, which is surrounded by some of downtown’s best architecture and features an elaborate fountain built on an imprint of where the Erie Canal once flowed directly through the city. Then head west on West Genesee Street to Wallace Street to connect into the Onondaga Creekwalk, a 2.6 mile trail that winds its way along Onondaga Creek to the Southern shore of Onondaga Lake at the city’s Inner Harbor.

The Erie Canal Museum (318 Erie Blvd E.) explains the origins of America’s first great transportation route that helped grow Syracuse into a 19th century boomtown. The museum’s interactive exhibits and artifacts culminate with a visit into the 1850 weighlock building that once stood alongside the canal and formerly collected tolls for cargo on the waterway.

Learn about Syracuse’s legacy as the Salt City at the Salt Museum (106 Lake Dr., Liverpool), which is housed within a former salt “boiling block” and features some of the original equipment used in the salt-making process. Then take a walk through the surrounding Onondaga Lake Park; a series of walking trails encircle the four and a half mile long lake and connect points of interest like Destiny USA and the city’s Inner Harbor Amphitheater.