The Tower Theatre

Two blocks of history West of the domino players has just been gussied up into a pedestrian ice Park and renamed Domino Plaza, but it's an unappealing and artificial place to dawdle.  Instead, stop and admire the astonishing exterior of the Tower Theatre at 15008 SW 8th St, the 1930 Art Deco masterpiece, with its shiny, rounded still signage, and sleep blue-and-white spire.  Notable as the first theater in Miami to add Spanish subtitles in 1960, it's now owned by the city of Miami and operated by Miami Dade College, which runs sporadic film programs-for details, see page 164, “performing arts and film”.

The Bay of Pigs Museum

The small Bay of Pigs Museum, at 18021 SW 9th St., it's crammed with ephemera associated with the invasion, also commemorated on the Cuban Memorial Boulevard.  There are maps, uniforms, guns, military plans, and of course, a full roll call of Brigade 2506 plus extensive photographs.  The snapshot of Cuban history it offers is intriguing, but it's mostly of interest to specialists and partisans-it was set up, of course, a little more than a myth-sustaining exercise and yet another Bastian of anti-Castro propaganda.  There's also an on-site library, mainly in Spanish, but documents on Cuban history and the Bay of Pigs invasion itself.

Woodlawn Cemetery

Even further West, and 3260 SW 8th St, was the enormous, serene woodland Cemetery, crowded with mausolea and statuary and filled with the manicured graves of many prominent local figures.  The father of Coral Gables, George Merrick, is buried here, but not in Merrick’s plots-his wife Eunice Peacock-his parents had been pioneers in coconut Grove-had moved him into her own families area two decades after he died.  It's also the final home for several expat Cuban bigwigs, including to deposed presidents-General Gerardo Michado, unseated in 1933, and Carlos Prio Siccorra as, one of the two prime movers behind Michado’s downfall, who was himself driven from office and the country in 1952.  Also interred in the mausoleum and marked only by his initials is Anastasio Somoza, dictator of Nicaragua until overthrown by the sand in this does in 1979, and later killed in Paraguay; look, too, for the black marble wall, a tribute to the unknown Cuban freedom fighter, one of the many killed during the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion.

Northern Little Havana and the Orange Bowl

Northwest of the heart of Little Havana 2319 NW 2nd St. stands Unidos en Casa Elian, the house where Elian Gonzalez stayed during a stormy time in Miami.  LOL as a flashpoint in Miami politics: after his mother was killed trying to reach America with her son on a raft November 1999, he was forcibly returned to his father who remained in Cuba by the federal government, despite enormous local protest.  This house had been turned into an oddly discomforting Museum in his honor by great-uncle Delphin Gonzalez: display cases house Ely on this way things, alongside dozens of photo collages and mawkish poems written in tribute by local residents.  Frankly, the only reason to come here is in an attempt to understand how arrived amid a wound the Elian controversy carve into Miami's Cuban community-as this house shows, is far deeper than an outsider might suspect.
Unless you're taking in a concert or game, there's nothing to draw you to the best Orange bowl, due north for Maximo Gomez Park at 1501 NW 3rd St home to University of Miami's perennial successful football team, the Hurricanes, the Orange Bowl is also known locally as the place were JFK excepted the brigade 2005 or six flag after the Bay of Pigs debacle a promise to return and free Havana.  Older Cuban exiles grimly joked he was referring to a well-known bar in Miami rather than the city.

Coral Gables

Accurate’s egg of urban planning, Coral Gables is separated from Miami proper by more than just politics.  It has a distinct local Council and residential regulations, and seems to regard itself as an upper-class cousin to Miami, sandwiched as it is between Grady Little Havana and oddball coconut Grove.  It's 12 mi.² of broad boulevards and leafy streets are lined by elaborate Spanish-an Italian-style architecture; you'll also find civic amenities like fountains and even a swimming  Pool dotted throughout the area intended by founder George Merrick to inspire civic pride in his residence, some say the plan for this European-style city has worked a little too well: this is the studious part of Miami, and his architectural beauty is somewhat blighted by suburban smugness you won't find elsewhere.
That said, it's a fascinating place to visit, largely because almost all the landmarks that sprouted during its development still stand.  The Merrick house, George Merrick's charming family home, remains, as do projects like the majestic City Hall and the miracle mile downtown.  The grandiose Biltmore Hotel has reopened for business, while the delightful Venetian Pool is an unmissable Miami site.  The international villages and entrances are spectacular follies, or internally of Merrick's grand vision and sales savvy, heading further variety to the city's European-style architecture.  Indeed, even the street layout is European, with winding roads that ambled through a haphazard grid of residential streets and tiny, ground-level white rocks that act as street signs-remember to bring a map to navigate, especially if you're driving.