This is the ultimate insider`s guide to Chicago, fully illustrated with 111 full-page color photographs, featuring interesting and unusual places not found in traditional travel guides. Chicago. City of the Big Shoulders. What started off as a small fur-trading settlement is today a bustling metropolis. Once considered the "hog butcher of the world, stacker of wheat, player with railroads and the nation`s freight handler," Chicago`s colorful past remains hidden in the nooks and crannies of this wonderful windy city. Adventures await, from the glamorous to the gritty. Sip dirty martinis in an elegant, underground, 1920`s bank vault. Paddle a kayak down the infamous Bubbly Creek of Upton Sinclair`s The Jungle. While away an afternoon in a salt cave, or smoke a classic cigar in the oldest family-run tobacco shop in the U.S. Snorkel a 32-acre, limestone sheet shoal, one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the Midwest. Dine outdoors in a 23rd floor Beaux-Arts cupola overlooking the Chicago River. Whether you`re an out-of-towner or a diehard Chicago dweller who thinks you`ve seen it all, these 111 hidden places are waiting for you to discover them. By Amy Bizzarri with photographs by Susie Inverso.

240 pages, Emons Publishers.