Halifax packs a lot of history into a compact, walkable downtown. The star-shaped Halifax Citadel, a British stone fortress on the hill above the city, is the obvious starting point — daily at noon they still fire the cannon, and costumed re-enactors wander the ramparts. Down at the waterfront, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic holds the best collection on the 1912 sinking of the Titanic (Halifax was the main recovery port and holds 150 Titanic graves at Fairview Lawn Cemetery) and on the 1917 Halifax Explosion, which levelled half the city. The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 was Canada's Ellis Island — over a million immigrants passed through here between 1928 and 1971 — and has powerful personal exhibits. The Halifax Public Gardens off Spring Garden Road are a beautifully maintained Victorian park, unchanged since 1867. Walk the waterfront boardwalk from the Seaport Market to the Historic Properties; and don't miss the donair, Halifax's unlikely late-night signature food — a pita wrapped around spiced meat and a sweet garlic-condensed-milk sauce that makes sense only once you have tried it.