Valencians love to be outside and, as the workday ends, will explode from their offices and flow down the sidewalks like lava, before coming to rest in one of the city's many plazas. There are hundreds of plazas in Valencia, but here are some of the historic center's most well-known.
If passing through the Plaza de la Virgen at noon on a Thursday, you'll have to fight your way past a huge conglomeration of people gathered at the cathedral's back door. You might want to pause and join the group yourself, in order to see Valencia's Tribunal de las Aguas: the oldest continuing court in Europe.
Let's say you've visited Xàtiva Castle. Amazing, but it sure was exhausting. The hike up that hill? The size of the place? I bet you're happy to be done! But don't relax quite yet, because you're not going to like what I've got to tell you. The castle might be the highlight, but so far you've only seen a fraction of what Xàtiva has to offer. Take a quick siesta, have a cup of coffee, bang out a line of coke, whatever you need to do: you've still got a long day ahead of you.
Decorated with a symmetrical grid of orange trees, the Plaza del Patriarca is home to a couple of Valencia's most historic buildings: the Real Colegio Seminario del Corpus Christi and La Nau, both of which date from the 15th century.
