Segovia

We're in Segovia, which has a wonderful old town. What we like best, though, is that Segovia keeps the Spanish tradition of the paseo - the evening walk - alive. From about 6 p.m. until about 9 or 10, the two main squares and the pedestrian street between them are full of people walking, talking, standing around, seeing, being seen. There are singles, couples, parents and kids, grandparents and grandkids, grandparents and parents and kids, or just friends walking together. I think it's about my favorite thing to do in Spain: just be part of the paseo.

Segovia's casco antiguo - old town - is a perfect place to walk in the past, especially after about 5 o'clock, when all the day-tripping tours from Madrid have left. Many of Spain's towns have worked hard to maintain the feel of their history; not always an easy thing to do when buildings need to be brought up to a livable condition, with electricity and plumbing. Segovia seems to have done that better than most; many of the buildings have been restored with exteriors that reflect old traditions. Here are a couple of recently renovated buildings with traditional exteriors:

That method of putting patterns on the walls is called scraffito; each house has a different pattern. We saw lots of scraffito in Barcelona, but hadn't realized how much of it there is here in Segovia. It cannot be inexpensive to do scraffito; that so many buildings are being restored with it is, I think, wonderful.

And Segovia has an iconic image: a Roman aqueduct, still in perfect condition. Built at the end of the 2nd century, with no cement or mortar, it still stands. When I first came to Segovia, in the late 1970s, the aqueduct still carried water into the old city. Sometime in the 80s, modernization made that unnecessary.

The paseo, under and around the aqueduct

Location:Plaza Mayor,Segovia,Spain