Guanajuato

Guanajuato was the richest silver city in the world in the eighteenth century, and it spent the money on churches, theaters and a university. It is built in a ravine, so the cars go through tunnels underneath and the people walk through hundreds of alleys above, past houses painted every color in the box. The view from the Pípila monument is the most photographed in central Mexico.

In October the Cervantino festival fills every plaza with theater and music. It is an hour and a half from San Miguel de Allende, and the two together make the perfect colonial week.