By Eric Alan Barton

John Ringling taught Sarasota a thing or two about showmanship when he brought his circus to the West Coast Florida city in 1927.

He built a museum filled with old masters and influenced an art community that now rivals those in many bigger cities around the country.

Ringling’s influence helped turn Sarasota into a resort town that can boast of everything from a home-grown opera house to an Amish enclave. Having some of the best beaches in the world didn’t hurt either, but Ringling gets most of the credit for putting Sarasota on the map for artists worldwide.

A town of 52,000, Sarasota is home to 30 art galleries, 10 theaters, two symphonies, the opera house and a ballet company. Actors come to train at the Asolo Theater Festival, and the Ringling School of Art and Design turns out sculptors, painters and the like.

But Sarasota is also known for its high-end attractions. New this year is a 266-room Ritz-Carlton in downtown. For about $400 a night, most of the rooms offer views of the sunsets over Sarasota Bay.

For those who can’t afford a night’s stay, the Ritz also hosts an afternoon tea every day from noon to 5. The $22 indulgence includes a three-tiered tray of goodies including scones, cucumber sandwiches and petit fours.

Dining is perhaps the favorite pastime of Sarasota’s upper crust, and you can find many of them at the upscale bistro Fred’s, the largely outdoor Alley Cat Cafe or the Silver Cricket, which specializes in Asian-fusion.

For a more relaxed taste of the city, check out downtown’s Main Bar, a sandwich shop no wider than a shotgun shack. It specializes in gazpacho and an Italian hoagie with a garlicky pepper relish. Once owned by a trapeze artist, its walls are filled with photos of circus stars.

Across Sarasota Bay is Siesta Key, home to a white sand beach that’s been called the third-best in the world. On Sunday evenings, an impromptu group of drummers gathers at the public beach for a wild drum circle that mixes tourists and belly dancers. The key is also home to Ophelia’s on the Bay, where diners can eat continental cuisine on an outdoor patio overlooking the water.

Just north of Siesta is Longboat Key, one of Florida’s most exclusive towns, where homes cost an average of $683,000. A main attraction is The Resort at Longboat Key Club.

Longboat and Siesta are a contrast to Sarasota’s Amish enclave of Pinecraft. Just two miles west of downtown, the community attracts up to 4,000 Amish visitors each winter.

Sarasota claims its first mayor introduced golf to Florida after immigrating from Scotland in 1885. There are now 30 courses in the area, including the city-owned Bobby Jones Golf Complex. During the summer, golfers can buy a 10-game package deal to play 18 holes for $14.50. Golfers at Waterlefe Golf & River Club in nearby Bradenton play along the Manatee River for $30 to $85.

Like most of Florida, Sarasota becomes more rural the further you head from the water. About 20 miles east of the city is a 28,000-acre Myakka River State Park, where visitors can take airboat rides through an alligator-infested lake and travel on the treetops in a walkway that reaches 74 feet high.

For less adventurous nature-lovers, the Selby Botanical Gardens in downtown has eight and one-half acres of pristine lands, with more than 20,000 plants.

As for the arts, Sarasota’s main attraction has long been the Asolo. Professional thespians perform alongside students who receive master’s degrees from Florida State University. Shows run from November to June. The theater regularly sells out, but shows with open seats the day of the performance charge only $7 for upper rows.

Next door to the Asolo is the museum Ringling built to house his extensive art collection. The grounds also include the Museum of the Circus and the Cà d’Zan, a 30-room Venetian Gothic mansion Ringling built on Sarasota Bay.

The Museum of the Circus chronicles the 209-year history of the traveling sideshow. Former circus stars brought to Sarasota by Ringling have contributed to its collection, which includes rare handbills and circus costumes.

Curators expected to complete a six-year, multimillion-dollar restoration of the Cà d’Zan in April. The home cost the Ringlings $1.5 million to build, a small fortune in 1926. The museum now holds 10,000 objects, which include an old masters collection of 750 paintings.

Visitors also can stroll the grounds and imagine when it was filled with wintering elephants, jugglers and bearded women, all in the shadow of Ringling’s mansion.

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