Introduction
The City of Hartford is located within the interior region of the State of Connecticut, well to the north of New Haven along Interstate 91 and United States Route 5 and along the Connecticut River upstream from the Haddam area and, ultimately, from the Saybrook area that has originally defined the State of Connecticut in the colonial era.
The State of Connecticut
While not the largest city within the State of Connecticut, the City of Hartford serves as the capital city of the State of Connecticut and the largest city within the Connecticut interior. Even though the vast majority of the State of Connecticut resides further to the south and west, as with the State of Maine, albeit to a larger scale being further south and west, the Hartford area remains of particular significance in the historical context as well as with tensions involving the nearby City of Springfield over the question of where the proper state line is meant to be. Though the 1637 legal case may no longer impact the rivalry between the Springfield and Hartford areas, each city provides a significant cultural footprint on the southwestern region of New England typically known within Massachusetts as the Pioneer Valley.
Attractions
In a state with relatively few attractions and a predominantly commuter-oriented culture, the City of Hartford serves as a tourist hotspot, though not necessarily as a destination for more geographically distant visitors. In most cases, visitors to Hartford are from the general area of New England, and especially Southern New England and the surrounding areas of the Northeast Megalopolis slightly beyond.
Of the few attractions of the City of Hartford, the most notable is the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art, located relatively nearby to United States Route 6 in the area. Also connected are the Connecticut Science Center, the Connecticut Freedom Trail (which is actually significantly more localized than the primary Freedom Trail of Boston), and the Old State House, though not much else exists within the innermost of the inner city area.
Colleges and Universities
Within the general area of the City of Hartford, the University of Connecticut (UConn) of Storrs/Mansfield further east actually operates a Greater Hartford campus within the general area. Separately of interest is Central Connecticut State University, located in New Britain, albeit in the other public state university system of Connecticut.
Private colleges and universities associated with the Hartford region, though not nearly as many as further south into the New Haven area, include the University of Hartford in West Hartford and Trinity College and the University of Saint Joseph each associated with the city proper.

