A family tour with a story running through it, for parents and children aged 7 to 12. We hunt for lions, horses and birds on the façades in order to get two lost children home.
On this walk the history of the city is woven into a story for children. The programme is built for families with children aged 7 to 12, but shaped so that the grown-ups find it every bit as interesting.
The tour has one story running through it. A brother and sister, Amparo and Vicente, came to Valencia with their parents but got lost at the station. They were on their way to their grandparents, who live in an unusual house with a lizard on it. Our task is to help them get there. The landmarks along the way are animals hiding on the city's buildings.
We begin at the North Station, where we find the first characters — the ducks. Then on the Town Hall square we meet lions and the bat that is the city's symbol. Passing along Calle San Vicente, by an old church with the figure of an enormous horse, we come out on the Plaza de la Reina by the Cathedral, and from there move to the Market square. Here we find a parrot and an eagle, talk about silk production and work out what a silkworm is and how it made the city rich. And here, at last, we find that house with the lizard.
Where Amparo and Vicente got lost — and where we find the first ducks.
Lions, and the bat that is the symbol of Valencia.
An old church with the figure of an enormous horse.
The Cathedral through a child's eyes.
A parrot, an eagle, and the story of the silkworm that made the city rich.
The finish: the very house where the grandparents are waiting.
While the children are caught up in Amparo and Vicente's story and hunting for animals, their parents get to look properly at the key sights of the centre, learn a great deal and spend unhurried time together.
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Four palaces of the Valencian nobility where the building itself is as interesting as the collection: Dos Aguas ceramics, the royal residence of Cervelló, the L’Iber miniatures and the city museum.
The Silk Exchange, the Water Tribunal, Las Fallas and hand bell ringing — four UNESCO entries, three of which are not buildings but living traditions.
A walking tour of the historic centre. We travel from Ancient Rome to the modern Mediterranean way of life, reading the character of the city through concrete detail and living stories.
We walk the old centre away from the tourist trails, looking for Christian, Moorish and Jewish traces of the medieval city and unpicking the sharp turns of its history.
An elegant walk for lovers of architecture. The orange-trade boom that turned the city into a runway for its boldest buildings: façades and interiors from the station to the Colón market.