Connecticut

Connecticut has a long tradition of ideas and learning, anchored today by Yale University in New Haven. That tradition traces back to the Fundamental Orders of 1639, an early framework of government that historians see as a model for the U.S. Constitution. This document is exactly where the state’s nickname comes from.

Commuting to New York City is common enough near the coast that daily life there feels faster and more reserved than much of New England.

A real seafaring history runs through coastal towns here, kept alive at Mystic Seaport, the country’s leading maritime museum, and at the USS Nautilus in Groton, the world’s first nuclear submarine. Inland, the Litchfield Hills offer a quieter, greener side of the state, while the small Thimble Islands carry that same coastal identity into daily life.