Peter Greenberg TODAY Travel Editor • Profile • E-mail

I'll always remember the first time I traveled to Charleston.

I sailed to the city on a cruise ship, as part of America’s inland waterway system. And, as the boat glided into the city, I was instantly reminded of one of the great movie lines about Charleston — a sentence that has been shortened over the years.

In Gone with the Wind, Rhett Butler's most famous line came at the end of the movie, when he turns and faces Scarlett O'Hara and says "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn...." everyone remembers that line. But it didn't end there. The complete quote is: "I'm going back to Charleston, where there is still a little grace and civility left in the world.”

Well, if you DO give a damn about grace and civility, you can still find it in abundance in Charleston, a remarkably well preserved peninsular city between the Ashey and Cooper Rivers and the Atlantic Ocean. it's a city with a skyline of steeples — 180 of them to be exact, and where most of the doorknobs in town are brass — and always seem polished.

Charleston is all about history, and the intersection of culture in America. What do Edgar Allen Poe and Flavor Fav have in common? They each lived in Charleston. So did John F Kennedy and Blackbeard the pirate, Samuel Morse and Stephen Colbert. And that's just for starters.

Want some real starters? Consider that America's first free library was established in Charleston, in 1698. In 1735, opera was first performed in America — In Charleston. Built around 1741, Middleton Place is the oldest formally landscaped garden in the United States. America's First public museum opened in January 1773 — in Charleston. Want some other firsts? America's first prescription drug store (1780), first golf course (1786) even America's first scheduled train service (1830) — all started in Charleston.

And here's another first, which helps to explain why Charleston retains so much of its history: the first zoning ordinance in America was established here in 1931 including the creation of a Board of Architectural Review.

Charleston remains a city of history and myth, of legend and storytelling, of visions and yes, of ghosts.

If you visit in April, May and October, the weather is at its best, when it’s not too hot or humid. At the same time, there’s not much of a “slow” season in Charleston—January is your best bet. The city doesn’t see the same dip in downtown hotel occupancy and rates that you’ll see elsewhere. People are shopping in the King Street area up until Christmas time. Christmas has the Holiday Festival of Lights (more than a million lights in James Island County Park) and the restored plantations are all decked out.

Before New Year’s is the large multi-national Renaissance "think tank", hosted by the Clintons; February marks the Distinctively Charleston Food and Wine Festival followed by the Southeast Wildlife Exposition.

Still, no matter what time of year you travel to Charleston, be prepared to be colorfully entertained. Again, this is a city that thrives on myths, legends and miracles.

Some might even call Charleston the hors d'oevures capital of America. Why? It started in 1865.

After the Civil war, Charlestonians did not have the means to afford the luscious and ostentatious meals which they served prior to the war. However, they still wanted to entertain.  Hence, they started serving cocktails with "dine and dash" hors d'oevures, never using plates, so as to offer less food and make for a chic evening. Guests could help them selves to stationary appetizers - no need for staff to serve table side.  Plates were never used.  And to this day the tradition remains. Only napkins - of course, which are always linen and often monogrammed.

Then there are the legends.

Visit the old county jail, where Charleston’s most notorious serial killers John and Lavinia Fisher were sentenced to death in 1819. Lavinia, a beautiful 27-year-old, requested that she be hanged in her wedding dress. She was hoping to use her charms to persuade the judges to spare her, but the public wouldn’t have any of it. They packed the courthouse and the streets shouting for her death, so she was sentenced to death. She shouted "If ye have a message ye want to send to Hell, give it to me - I'll carry it!” Legend has it that she grabbed the noose herself and jumped off the block.

And don't forget ghosts. You don't need Halloween to visit Charleston.

Learn about Charleston’s legends and ghosts first hand on a walking tour that takes you through dungeons, jails, and a graveyard… at night! Adults: $18.50 Children (8-14): $10.50 (843) 722-8687, www.bulldogtours.com

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