As anyone who travels to cities, and/or lives in one, knows, the only way to get to know a city is to walk in it. And ideally to walk without purpose, or at least open to the serendipity of the unexpected. A quaint alleyway, an unusually decorated house, a small church tucked away from the main thoroughfare, a garden or tranquil square … Who knows what you might find?
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The centre of Cagliari is divided into four districts. While Castello was traditionally the home of the city's nobles, neighbouring Stampace at the foot of the hill was home to its merchants.
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Cagliari is an ancient city, a city of hills and winding alleyways, of churches and old walls and stunning vistas. It is traditionally divided into four districts, of which Castello is the most historically significant. So where better to start our explorations on our first morning in the city?
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Sometimes on a trip it’s important to take the pace down a notch. In the end it doesn’t matter if you squeeze in every sight or miss a few. By rushing around you can fail to really appreciate where you are and to notice the smaller details that distinguish one place from the next.
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On a mountain high above Oaxaca lies one of the most significant archaeological sites in all of Mexico, Monte Albán. This mountain top was home to the Zapotec people for thirteen centuries. It is jointly UNESCO listed, with the city of Oaxaca itself. UNESCO describe it as, ‘an outstanding example of a pre-Columbian ceremonial centre’. The listing summarises the site’s history:
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So today I am aiming to make you all hungry! Oaxaca is often dubbed the gastronomic capital of Mexico, so where better place to go on a food tour with a local?
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When I told people we were going to Mexico, a frequent piece of advice was, make sure you visit Oaxaca. It’s beautiful, they said, and the food is amazing! The advice however was unnecessary, as the city was already on my must-see list. And Oaxaca de Juárez, to give it its full name, definitely lived up to my expectations.
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In 1531 a peasant, Juan Diego, reported seeing an apparition of the Virgin Mary on the hill of Tepeyac, today swallowed up in the metropolis of Mexico City. The Virgin, he said, spoke to him in in Nahuatl, his first language, asking that a church be built on the site in her honour.
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Some ten kilometres or so south of the centre of Mexico City lies historic Villa Coyoacán. Today it is a picturesque corner of the wider conurbation but was once a village in its own right. It was founded by the Tepecana people on the shores of Lake Texcoco, a huge lake now largely drained, its area occupied by Mexico City.
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Long before the Aztecs set foot in what is today Mexico, another people built their city there, creating one of the first urban societies in the Americas. But little is known about these people. When the Aztecs arrived the city was already abandoned. Yet the new arrivals were so impressed by what they found that they named it Teotihuacan, 'the place where the gods were created'.
