At Mantua, you can spend the morning tending flowers or playing tennis and take the afternoon to shop at nearby Fair Oaks or Tysons Corner and Tysons II malls, which feature specialty major department and specialty stores-together they are make a retail environment rivaled only by mid-town Manhattan.

You can spend the evening, enjoying world-class performances at the George Mason University Center for the Arts or the Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts. The Fairfax Symphony Orchestra (www.fairfaxsymphony.org) features a seven-concert series, an "Al Gershwin" Pops concert, a Valentine's Pops Gala concert, a family holiday festival matinee and an extensive series of outreach programs in area schools. These unique amenities are easily accessible from Mantua.

Fairfax County also offers a host of historical sites, including Mount Vernon and Gunston Hall. And just across the Potomac River lie the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian museums and Washington's memorials and institutions.

In Mantua, you get all the advantages of a hometown atmosphere with all the amenities of a major city.