By BRENDA D. FARRELL
The Associated Press

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Since the middle of January, I've been asked the same question by friends, relatives and associates who live in other parts of the country.

Yes, the city of Providence, R.I., really does look like the Providence of the popular NBC television drama.

Honest. It's not a Hollywood back lot. Those gorgeous canals, called Riverpark on the show, are part of the city's new Waterplace Park and Riverwalk. The clusters of charming colonial, federal and Victorian houses, presented as the neighborhood where Dr. Sydney Hansen works in a family clinic, have stood on Benefit Street and its environs for hundreds of years.

And the burial scene for Syd's irrepressible mother was filmed at Swan Point Cemetery on the city's affluent East Side -- the final resting place for many of Rhode Island's elite.

Some of the city's attractions haven't been seen on TV, but are definitely worth visiting.

Downcity: The hub of the city is enjoying the lion's share of an ongoing $2 billion renaissance. Within the last nine years, downcity (the local epithet for downtown) has added a new convention center complex, the four-acre Waterplace Park and Riverwalk and Fleet Skating Center (better than twice the size of the ice at Rockefeller Center). The 150-store Providence Place Mall, highlighted by New England's first Nordstrom department store, is scheduled to open in August. A half-dozen new hotels are proposed.

At Waterplace Park is the Boathouse, upon which the TV show's fictional O'Neil's Bar is based. Take a stroll down the Riverwalk from the Boathouse, and you'll recognize this area from the show's pilot episode. It was the scene of Syd's fantasy about her high school sweetheart, Kyle, sculling on the canal.

It is the convergence of the very old with the very new that lends Providence much of its charm. The Arcade at 65 Weybosset St., a three-story Greek Revival building that opened in 1828, is the oldest indoor shopping mall in America.

Just down the street at Kennedy Plaza are the city's Louvre-inspired City Hall, the historic Biltmore Hotel (the setting for a Hansen family dinner gone awry) and the new Fleet Skating Center (outdoor ice skating in winter, inline skating and skateboarding in warmer months).

East Side: Viewers of Providence have seen bits and pieces of the East Side in most of the episodes. The most familiar of these is Benefit Street, Providence's ''Mile of History,'' where you'll find the largest concentration of original colonial houses in America. Tours of some of these privately owned homes and their terraced gardens are open to the public once each year, during the Providence Preservation Society's Festival of Historic Houses. This year's festival is Friday and Saturday.

If you visit Benefit Street, block off a couple of hours to spend in the Museum of Art at Rhode Island School of Design. Although most people go to this fine small museum for its collections of classical paintings, decorative arts (the Gorham silver collection is a must-see) and Egyptian and Asian artifacts (kids love the mummy and the Buddha), they stay to watch the works in progress -- students in the galleries, practicing the styles of the masters.

Across the street is the Providence Athenaeum, a Greek Revival structure built in 1753 and said to be one of America's oldest subscription libraries.

Climb College Hill and you'll be greeted by another familiar site, Brown University's noble Van Wickle Gates. In Providence, the black wrought iron gates appeared as the entrance to the fictional ''University Hospital.'' But the story line isn't a total fabrication -- Brown does have a medical school.

Federal Hill: Providence's ''Little Italy,'' offers dining choices ranging from the hearty, simple fare at Angelo's Civita Farnese (spaghetti with fried chicken and french fries) to the award-winning cuisine of L'Epicureo and La Locanda del Coccio.

Jewelry District: Once the nation's epicenter for costume jewelry manufacturing, this neighborhood south of downcity is enjoying a renaissance of its own as part of the arts and entertainment district. Old factory buildings have been transformed into nightclubs, restaurants, and office space for graphic designers, photographers, publishers and advertising agencies. Live blues, R&B and jazz are played at clubs such as CAV, the Green Room, the Call and the Century Lounge.

The new Providence Children's Museum is in the Jewelry District at 100 South St.

Roger Williams Park Zoo: Polar bears, snow leopards, giraffes, penguins and cheetahs are just a few of the 150 species populating New England's finest zoo.

IF YOU GO