“People love to find little corner places,” Ginger Duncan observed the day I stumbled across her corner in Savannah.

This Georgia city near the sea just might have more corners than most since its blocks are filled with squares, old beautifully planted ones started in 1733.

Antique maps, prints and books fill Duncan’s interesting corners, a three-room collection of treasures for sale topped by the gracious two-story home she and her husband John share near Monterey Square.

“Monterey is Savannah’s prettiest square,” John says; “We waited and watched until a home was available. I knew this was the place for me to be.”

He’s a tall handsome man, exuding a kind of charm possible only with a twelfth generation Charleston heritage like his.

If you watched the movie “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” you’ll recognize him, voice and all, as the gentleman in the park. Ginger played one of the card club women.

I bought three antique maps, not because I knew I wanted them before arriving. I didn’t even know about this place or the Duncans when I left home.

My quest was discovering Savannah all over again---not the places touted by tourism professionals. Not the famous restaurants. None of the familiar trolley and walking tours this time.

I wanted to feel at home in the dizzying array of parks that I had driven and ridden around many times before, always confusing one with another, and I wanted to meet some neighbors who weren’t docents in historic homes.

The basics are great in Savannah and worth choosing, but this was a journey to pay attention to what had surely been right under my nose when I’d been enjoying the famous stuff.

I started by renting two nights in what felt like somebody’s house. Always had a hotel room before, often on the Savannah River, or a bed and breakfast inn.

Jeanne-Marie Everson and Geoffrey Albert have four half-houses plus a Carriage house to share, and another one ready for the last touchup of paint and polish that will sleep a dozen. They’re right across the street, or around the corner and down the block, from big, beautiful, busy Forsyth Park.

Traveling partner G. W. Tibbetts and I stayed in Upper Drayton, with a top floor view of the big park. Felt like neighbors, not tourists, being with people walking dogs in the park, cheering on the little kid football games and walking just a block to the coffee shop for breakfast one morning: $4.50 omelet for him, $2.50 granola with blueberries and yogurt for me.

Nobody else in the Sentient Bean looked like us; they were much younger, balancing cell phones and laptops while eating and somehow paying attention to people too. We wouldn’t have shared in that local culture in a big hotel breakfast room.

Self-indulgent vacationer role is possible too staying right inside one of Everson and Albert’s homes. Ask them to send Tiffany Kelly over for brunch; she’ll cook it for you right there. Personal chef for several hours.

Forget the bagel for eggs benedict this morning; experience Gulf shrimp cake topped with poached egg and Hollandaise sauce. Also, peaches and cream French toast and sweet potato home fries. They’re gently shredded, not chunks.

Dress if you like for breakfast, or eat in your pjs. You’re at home on this dreamy Savannah vacation.

My grandmother was a private chef in Boston,” Kelly says, “and I’ve cooked on yachts in the Caribbean. I’m very comfortable cooking anything.”

She’ll tell you her recipes, teach you how and chat about other meals too if you like. Fresh everything, from the farmer’s market and the closest farm-to-table source possible.

Who does this, I wondered since it was a first for me. “Middle class people mostly,” Kelly said. “Everyday people wanting something special on a holiday.

“Fans of cooking programs on TV too. People like watching chefs cook and I’m happy having people in the kitchen as I create.”

Guess you could wait in bed. I didn’t.

$75 for this breakfast for two. She’ll put the coffee on first. When you book this personal meal experience, the chef will have returned from six autumn weeks cooking on an organic farm in northern California.

Cooking for yourself works too in Jeanne-Marie’s Upper and Lower Drayton, Carriage House and East Waldburg homes because the sparkly-clean kitchens have plenty of pots, pans and utensils, plus an alphabet of herbs and spices.

Stretching out naked in the living rooms works too. When you book the holiday home, ask Jeanne-Marie to arrange a visit from the massage therapist.

Laura Sturgess spent two hours with us – strong hands well versed in deep tissue and relaxation techniques and we didn’t have to find our way to a spa, drive, park or feed the meter.

Leave the driving to Everson and Albert; he delights in telling Savannah stories and pointing out the highlights as well as the quirky spots from their 1962 red Cadillac convertible. Set aside $15 an hour per person for this classic tour tied to what they call a Savannah Dream Vacation.

My quest for treasures framing the squares of Savannah found me walking north through the four blocks of Forsyth Park to stroll Bull Street through five squares.

The Sefer Torah is more than a discovery, rather a privilege to behold. Scribed in the early 1400s in Spain or Portugal, it was given to the 41 Jews in London boarding the William and Sarah to sail to the Georgia colony July 11, 1733.

Remarkable I could walk through a park—Monterey Square—inside the museum adjoining Congregation Mickve Israel not knowing what to anticipate, and stand in the presence of faith-filled history.

A shofar is there too, an ancient musical instrument made from a ram’s horn. Talk about giving meaning to Old Testament stories.

This one is 12 inches and curved with a label saying the shape symbolizes a contrite heart bent in repentance.

Not sure I can claim those traits after shrimp cake eggs benedict, but I truly was thankful for the experience of this museum. A guided tour of the Synagogue is possible too for the $5 suggested donation, a lovely place with many architectural features in a smallish space.

The antique maps, prints and books John and Ginger Duncan love so much is just a block away, so history, heritage, antiques, artifacts and a genuine love of what happens in their space every day join this museum and the shop, both in sight of Monterey Square.

A different kind of style blends a tearoom and shopping place two blocks and one square north.

Madison is the name of the square and Gryphon Tea Room serves Thai lemon and Himalayan strawberry tea, plus salads and sandwiches. Breakfast too. I didn’t eat, but did gaze a long time.

Go inside. Stained glass ceiling, windows overlooking Madison Square and Bull Street, Honduran mahogany, Tiffany-style lamps and a clock with carved mahogany griffins.

This used to be a pharmacy, filling prescriptions and serving ice cream since 1913. Now it’s owned by the Savannah College of Art and Design, as is the good-looking shop across the street.

Hand crafted art for sale, for using as much as admiring, in Shop SCAD on Madison Square.

Crowded, jam-packed is the opposite feature in a long-time family business a few blocks further along Bull, turning west on State Street. Wright and Johnson squares are the landmarks.

Go here with three purposes: order up an extra copy of your house key, enjoy local colorful people and places and contemplate bringing back the dead.

William Houdini Bradley owns the Lock & Key Shop and he’s proud of the photos of Harry Houdini and his wife on the walls, loaded with locks and keys, Halloween decorations, horse bridles and historic tools of many decades.

His family has owned the shop for 130 years so far and his dad was a hypnotist too.

“My father was particularly interested in séances to bring back the dead,” today’s Bradley says. “As far as I know, he never did.”

But he did receive a photo autographed by Bess Houdini, wife of the master magician, illusionist and folk hero. And gave his son a middle name.

French would be the next name to choose and I had to leave Bull Street and its squares to taste Herve Didailler’s shrimp and fennel salad, goat cheese, spinach and roasted tomato pie, mango mousse and crème brulee.

He serves a ham and cheese croque monsieur sandwich too; the last time I had one that good was in a sidewalk café on the Champs Elysee.

Didailler and Anne Marie Apgar cook everything fresh, from scratch and daily. To prove his point he likes to point out the small freezer in the kitchen.

No need to freeze when you cook fresh. He’s from Brittany and a map of Paris as it looked in 1739 fills one wall in the restaurant called Papillote.

A few tables for dining in here, but cuisine to go is the emphasis. I learned about this delectable spot nestled between stores on busy Broughton Street from John Duncan in the midst of his antique maps and prints.

Figured his advice was sage, and it was, just like everywhere Jeanne-Marie and Geoff pointed me.

Chances are strong I could ask again and find even more that’s new to many visiting Savannah.