What's a good 3-day itinerary for Nashville?

Day 1 stays below Broadway in SoBro and Downtown. Hit the Country Music Hall of Fame on Demonbreun Street at 9am, before the tour-bus crowds fill the lobby around 10:30. The museum opened in 1961 and moved to its current building in 2001. Budget 90 minutes. The RCA Studio B add-on tour leaves by van from the lobby to Music Row and back. Walk north on 5th Avenue to Broadway by 11am. The honky-tonks are free to enter, and bands start playing by 10am most days. Robert's Western World is the one that matters here. Order the fried bologna sandwich for $7. The white bread soaks up yellow mustard and the meat has a char edge from the flat-top grill. Walk 2 blocks north to the Ryman Auditorium by 1pm for the self-guided tour at $28. The oak pews date to 1892 and the room seats only 2,362. By 3pm, cross the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge for the skyline view back toward Downtown. Dinner at Biscuit Love in The Gulch by 5:30pm, before the 45-minute evening wait kicks in.

Day 2 moves north and east. Start at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park by 9am. The park opened in 1996 and runs 19 acres along a straight line pointing at the Tennessee State Capitol. The granite map of Tennessee embedded in the north walkway is worth 10 minutes on its own. Walk south into Germantown for coffee at Barista Parlor by 10am. Lunch at Monell's on 6th Avenue North, where you sit at communal tables and plates of fried chicken, corn pudding, and skillet cornbread rotate family-style for $20 per person. The cornbread is sweet and dense, almost cake-like. After lunch, take a 7-minute rideshare to Five Points in East Nashville by 1:30pm. The neighborhood clusters around the five-way intersection at 11th and Woodland. Browse Grimey's New and Preloved Music for vinyl. The Pharmacy Burger Parlor on McFerrin Avenue has a beer garden with long wooden tables under string lights, good for a mid-afternoon stop. Dinner at Butcher & Bee on Main Street by 7pm.

Day 3 heads west. Centennial Park opens at sunrise, but arrive by 9am for the Parthenon, Nashville's full-scale replica built in 1897 for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. The 42-foot Athena statue inside is the tallest indoor sculpture in the Western Hemisphere. Admission runs $10. Walk the 1-mile loop around Lake Watauga before the midday heat sets in. By 11:30am, rideshare 10 minutes south to 12South, the residential strip along 12th Avenue South. Lunch at Edley's Bar-B-Que. The pulled pork plate with white bread and two sides goes for $15, and the hickory smoke drifts halfway down the block. Walk past the I Believe in Nashville mural and browse Imogene + Willie for selvedge denim if that's your speed. By 3pm, if you booked weeks ahead, head to The Bluebird Cafe in Green Hills for the 6pm songwriter round. The room seats 90 people. You'll hear the writers of songs you know singing their own versions 8 feet from your table.

Nashville is a car city. The WeGo bus system covers downtown but service thins past Germantown and East Nashville. Rideshares run $8-15 for most cross-neighborhood trips. June heat is serious. Temperatures currently sit around 32°C and the humidity makes the sidewalks radiate. Carry water, wear a hat, and time your outdoor walks before 11am or after 4pm. One trade-off worth naming. Broadway between 9pm and 2am on weekends gets rough, with bachelorette-party crowds packing the sidewalks 6 deep and pedal tavern noise rattling the windows. If that sounds miserable, spend the evening in Germantown or East Nashville instead. About 25 km of total walking across the 3 days, with rideshares bridging the gaps between neighborhoods.