Every seaside village in Maine boasts that their lobsters are the best—but none go as far to prove it as Rockland, which ships 10 million pounds of lobster around the world each year. The hub of the Penobscot area, Rockland has been a center of cod and lobster fishing for 200 years.

It’s only in the past decade or so that it has managed to clean up its gritty image and market its assets to attract tourists. Since that time, the town has gone through Maine’s most successful renaissance to become a mandatory stop on the coast.

Chief among the towns attractions is the fabulous Farnsworth Museum, which has expanded to fill three buildings in the downtown area and spawned dozens of smaller art galleries in its wake. That hasn’t changed the industrial patina of the working waterfront, which is still home to a fleet of lobster boats and ferries steaming to the islands of the bay.

The local chamber has proudly proclaimed Rockland to be “the Real Maine”—and so it is.