Experience the best of Oviedo

Oviedo sits among green hills a short distance from the Bay of Biscay, and its old quarter is a compact web of stone plazas around the Gothic cathedral, whose Holy Chamber holds medieval treasures including the jewelled Cross of the Angels. Above the city on Mount Naranco stand two small ninth-century churches, Santa María del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo, part of the World Heritage listing for the kingdom of Asturias.

A bronze statue of Woody Allen stands on a street corner, and the Campoamor Theatre hosts the Princess of Asturias Awards ceremony. The Fontán market square and the cider street of Calle Gascona are lively in the evening. Gijón's beaches and the port of Avilés lie on the coast, and the Picos de Europa, with Covadonga and its lakes, are within reach to the east.

Cider is poured from a height into a wide glass, and meals centre on fabada, a stew of white beans, chorizo and morcilla, and cachopo, breaded veal stuffed with ham and cheese. Cabrales blue cheese comes from the mountains, and carbayones are almond pastries named for Oviedo's oak trees. The climate is green and rainy, with mild summers and cool winters.