Top Rated Attractions in Toronto

If you like shoes, you'll love this museum devoted entirely to footwear; see shoes from various cultures and all parts of the world, from ancient times to the present. Fancy shoes and basic ones, boots and sandals, they are all in the Raymond Moriyama building, located north of the University of Toronto campus. You can view more than 10,000 pairs in all. Celebrity shoes include Queen Victoria's ballroom slippers, Elvis's blue patent loafers and Karen Kain's ballet pointes.

With its traditional Neo-Gothic style, exquisite stained glass windows and impressive steeples and spires, St. Michael's Catholic Cathedral resonates as one of Toronto's architectural and spiritual landmarks. St. Michael's Catholic Cathedral is also well-known for its choirs, junior and senior, which perform at various services on Sunday morning. Extremely active in the community, the church has a strong Catholic Women's League and opens its doors for weekly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

St James Park, with its 19th-century garden and splendid fountain, is the setting for this cathedral, Toronto's first Anglican Church. The Cathedral Church of St James you see today, which opened in 1853, is actually the third on the site - the first two were destroyed by fires in 1839 and 1849 respectively. Designed by architect Fredrich Cumberland, the present church includes the tallest steeple in Canada and an elaborate interior with a solid marble choir stall and stained glass windows.

Conceived by popular cellist Yo-Yo Ma and other visionaries like Niv Fichman, Julie Moir Messervy and James Fleck, the Toronto Music Garden is a reproduction of "Bach's 'Suite No. 1" in G Major for unaccompanied cello, "BWV 1007" upon a scenic landscape by the harbor. The garden has been designed and segregated in various sections corresponding to the various parts and dance moves in Bach's composition. These themed sections are named as Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Minuets and Gigue and have been manicured according to the movement of the suite. This tranquil park is an ideal place to sit back, relax and contemplate. There's an amphitheater, a circular pavilion and other spaces that are best suited for informal performances, poetry readings, live concerts and various other artistic activities.

At Yonge and Wellington, between Scott and Church, is an historic triangle of bricks and mortar known locally as the Flatiron Building. Also known as the Gooderham Building, it used to be home to the corporate offices of the Gooderham and Worts Distillery empire. A mirror image mural of the Perkins Building located across the street, painted by renowned Canadian artist Derek Besant, adds color to an already remarkable structure. The pub in the basement is a popular haunt, and features a massive outdoor patio that overlooks one of the richest architectural areas of the city. Today this building is home to Gilbert's LLP, lawyers and patent & Trademark Agents.