Valencia
UNESCO World Heritage Site (La Lonja De La Seda De Valencia, Inscribed 1996), Spain'S Third City, A Roman Foundation And Moorish Capital, With The Turia Riverbed Converted To A Nine Kilometre Park · Valencia, Valencia
Spain's third city, and the one that has quietly become the most liveable. Valencia was founded by the Romans, was a Moorish capital, and grew rich on silk, which is why the Llotja, the fifteenth-century silk exchange, is a World Heritage Site and is the finest secular Gothic building in the country. The old town around it is large, dense and still visibly Moorish in its street plan. What makes the city unusual is what happened after the 1957 flood: the river was diverted around the city and the empty bed was turned into a nine-kilometre park that curls through the middle of everything, ending at the City of Arts and Sciences. So you can cycle from a Gothic cathedral to a Calatrava opera house without touching a road. It is also where paella comes from, with rabbit and beans rather than seafood, and the Fallas in March is one of the loudest festivals in Europe, with enormous satirical figures built for a year and then burnt in a single night, which is either the reason to come in March or the reason not to.
Plaza de la Reina, Valencia, Valencia, 46001, Spain
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED, and the city has none: the old town, the Turia park and the beach are public and always open. What has hours are the monuments, and two things matter. The MERCADO CENTRAL is a MORNING MARKET that winds down by early afternoon and closes Sundays. The cathedral, the Llotja and the museums take a LONG MIDDAY BREAK and several close Mondays. The WATER TRIBUNAL meets Thursdays at noon. LAS FALLAS in March overrides everything.