Where Cervantes Feuded: A Self-Guided Madrid Tour

Overview

Madrid is one of Europe's most layered capital cities, where royal ambition, literary feuds, and financial rivalries are written into every street corner. On this self-guided audio tour, you'll follow a route from Puerta del Sol through the aristocratic Jerónimos neighborhood to the cobblestoned Barrio de las Letras. The tour starts at Puerta del Sol, where you'll find Kilometre Zero, before heading along Calle de Alcalá. You'll pass the Metrópolis Building, its dome covered in slate scales and 24-carat gold leaf, and the Instituto Cervantes, a former bank whose vaults now hold sealed letters from notable figures, to be opened in the future. You'll then enter El Retiro Park through the Puerta de la Independencia and walk among the Paseo de la Argentina's stone ghosts – statues removed from the Royal Palace after a queen's recurring nightmare about them tumbling down. The tour ends at Puerta del Sol, right next to Pastelería La Mallorquina.