PITTSBURGH -- You always know whether you're driving into a city with pizazz, or one whose energy is dragging. In Pittsburgh, we sensed the lively spirit of this place even before we reached our hotel.

All sorts of people were walking downtown, though it was a weeknight -- hipsters and students in jeans, executives in business suits, decked-out women carrying clutch purses. Some hurried, perhaps to catch a show; others strolled at a leisurely pace along the riverfront, talking and holding hands.

Neon flashed, restaurants were open. This was no darkened rust-belt town. In an era when so many cities in this region bemoan their boarded-up Main Streets, Pittsburgh is hotter than the horseradish H.J. Heinz sold here in the 1870s.

But Pittsburgh, evolved from a grassy triangle where three rivers come together, was one of the first northern-industrial cities to recover and thrive after the steel industry left in the 1980s. Not much evidence remains of its former blue-collar base. Those warehouses still standing have been renovated and now enjoy a second life as restaurants, condos and nightclubs.

Today, it's Pittsburgh's downtown that sits on that triangle, connected by bridges to 88 distinct neighborhoods and districts. They were settled during the late 19th century industrial revolution by immigrants who came to work for industrial giants like Alcoa, U.S. Steel, H.J. Heinz, PPG Industries and Mellon Financial Corp.

Those companies were persuaded to keep their corporate headquarters here after the last of the steel mills closed in the 1980s and the economy shifted from manufacturing to technology and health care.

Some of those neighborhoods still retain their cultural and ethnic identities, immediately apparent from the clusters of Italian, Chinese and Vietnamese restaurant and shop signs.

SO MUCH TO DO

Alas, Pittsburgh overwhelmed us with too many choices. We didn't have time for the $281-million Heinz Field, home to the 2006 Super Bowl champion Steelers. Nor could we visit the acclaimed Frick Art & Historical Center, or the super-cool 16:62 Design Zone -- 56 blocks of boutiques, antique shops, design studios and art galleries.

But we managed to see a lot, starting with a morning at the Andy Warhol Museum. It has seven floors of drawings, prints, paintings, sculpture and film the artist created, as well as artifacts of his life: party invitations, samples of his collections (including the famous cookie jars) and a wall of his Interview magazine covers. And don't be intimidated by the seven floors; they're small and easy to cover before ''museum legs'' set in. We didn't skip the eclectic little gift shop, either.

Another spot we're glad we saw is the Mattress Factory, an easy-to-miss gem of a museum on the North Side, offering contemporary installation art -- massive, mostly room-sized works, fun and provocative (if not so easy to understand).

On each floor of this converted warehouse, you enter a room that has been transformed into art: In one mirrored room, orange polka-dots cover the floor and a scattering of nude mannequins. In another, dozens of plaster garden statuaries appear to tumble across the room, into a hole in the floor. Yet another room appears to be empty, save for a square of purple light on the far wall -- which, you discover, is a square hole you can stick your arm into.

Down the street and associated with Mattress Factory is House Poem, the home of Huang Xiang, celebrated Chinese poet, human rights advocate and master calligrapher. He has transformed the exterior of his house into his notepad, covering the dark wooden clapboards with his poetry, all in white Chinese characters, in a haunting, beautiful plea for freedom.

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