Segovia

Segovia balances two thousand years on a hundred and sixty-seven arches. The Roman aqueduct strides through the city's front door at full imperial height — granite blocks without mortar, the best-preserved such structure anywhere, still looking rented from eternity — and the town answers at its far end with the Alcázar: the ship-prowed castle on its rock spur, slate cones and throne rooms, so storybook-perfect that popular legend enrolls it among the inspirations for Disney's castles. Between the two, the "lady of cathedrals" — the last great Gothic church built in Spain — lifts her pinnacles over a huddle of Romanesque parishes and the old Jewish quarter's lanes.

Segovia's fame is also served at table: cochinillo, the suckling pig of the asadores, carved by tradition with the edge of a plate (the ceremony Cándido made world-famous), is the city's edible monument, with the Templar-linked Vera Cruz chapel and La Granja's royal fountains completing the excursions. The stage is documented in the concert record: the Teatro Juan Bravo on the Plaza Mayor — named for the comunero captain the city gave to Castile's great revolt — the elegant provincial house where touring opera, concerts and drama have played for a century. Aqueduct, alcázar, crackling and a rebel's name on the marquee: Segovia stages Castile complete.