Valladolid - Casa de Cervantes

To the east of the Plaza de Zorrilla, in the short Calle del Rosario, can be found the Casa de Cervantes, a little gem lost in a rather unattractive part of the city. Calle Miguel Iscar, going east from the square, runs past a high wrought-iron railing through which there is a glimpse of a small garden with a fountain in the center. On the far side of the garden is the house, overgrown with ivy and wild vines, in which Cervantes lived from 1603 to 1606 and probably wrote the first part of ''Don Quixote''. The Río Esgueva, spanned by a small bridge, once flowed past the house; but of this no trace is left in the modern town. On a conducted tour of the house (in Spanish only) visitors are shown the dining room, Cervantes's desk, the alcove, the kitchen and other rooms, giving them an idea of the way of life in a better-off 16th century Spanish household.