Go West. Castilla y León, on the western border of Spain, pressed up against Portugal, falls outside many visitors’ itineraries, but this is España Profunda, Deep Spain, where Cervantes and Columbus and Isabel and Ferdinand spent a good portion of their lives. Salamanca is the cultural capital (Valladolid to the north is the political capital), a mid-sized city with some of the country’s oldest buildings and youngest citizens (see #2). The Plaza Mayor is one of Spain’s finest, the Cathedral one of its largest, and everywhere you turn you will be surrounded by cured pork of staggering quality. You’d be wise to settle in for the long haul.
Feel young again. Salamanca is home to the Universidad de Salamanca, one of Europe’s oldest (founded in 1218) and largest universities, where 30,000 of the bright stars of tomorrow feed their minds. Engage in one of the student body’s sacred rituals: Legend has it that if you can spot the frog on the Fachada Rica, the university’s mind-bending façade (which houses carvings of Carlos V, Venus, and Hercules, among hundreds of others), you’ll pass all of your courses. Or, in your case, have a damn good time while you’re in town.
It’s not español; it’s castellano. Salamanca is one of Spain’s oldest intellectual centers, home to many of Spain’s most famous writers—from Luis de León to Carmen Martín Gaite. They speak one of the purest forms of Spanish, which here (and throughout Spain) is commonly referred to as castellano–a nod to its birthplace on the central planes of Castilla. Spanish courses for foreigners abound, as do young Americans and Europeans studying abroad. Why not join them?
This is a meat town. It’s not to say that an herbivore can’t find something decent to eat in these parts, but the best of local cuisine leans heavier on fauna than flora. The herbivores dilemma is the carnivore’s delight: Meathounds will find classic restaurants serving wood-roasted suckling pig (cochinillo), crispy-skinned milk-fed lamb (lechazo), and thick-cut steaks cooked rare and served with roasted piquillo peppers. For the most potent expression of Castilian protein prowess, try chanfaina, a slow-cooked stew of lamb organs, blood, garlic, and spices.
Salamanca is golden. The city is know as La Dorada—the golden one, for the glow of its sandstone buildings. And when the sun goes down and the streetlights come up (Salamanca is one of Europe’s best-lit cities), the glow is especially magnificent. Start across the Roman Bridge (preferably with a sunset bottle of local vino tinto), and work your way up towards the cathedral, past the university, and down as many back and side streets as possible before landing in the Plaza Mayor.
Don’t sunbathe in the Plaza Mayor. This is one of Spain’s largest and grandest plazas, and there is nothing locals hate more than to watch a cabbage patch of pale bodies bake themselves lobster red on a warm summer day. Stretch out, enjoy the plaza, drink a few beers, but keep your clothes on.