The boss assassinations are (almost) all pretty good, but yeah, the same build up to each one was a boring grind.
I still love it - it's the best AC from a historical perspective, and although the Ezio trilogy having so much better gameplay, there's always that part in me that keeps that special feeling for AC1. Not enough to go back to replay it again, though.
If you can find some good saves, you might want to just try the boss missions.