We recommend spending the morning travelling to the Roman world of the 4th and 5th centuries at the Carranque Archaeological Park. Here, just 5 km from the town of Carranque, on the shores of the Guadarrama river, an influential Roman patrician named Materno decided to make major reforms to a residential complex. The result was a splendid country villa, a palatial building and a production complex used to prepare olive oil and wine, and a mausoleum. Admiring the stunning collection of mosaics covering the corridors and twenty of the House of Materno rooms justifies the trip by itself.

Next, we travel to Illescas, where we recommend staying overnight. The town preserves a medieval lattice in its old quarter, with narrow, uneven streets and a large number of squares (the main square, the Infanzones square, the chains square (Plaza de las Cadenas), the Market square, etc.) In the Hospital and Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity, don’t miss the five El Greco paintings kept there.

It is said that in the Infanzones square in Illescas, under the shadow of the old oak tree, the legendary writer Miguel de Cervantes spent some days. It’s not an accident.

Cervantes came to Esquivias, 10 km from Illescas, when he was 38, and there met Catalina de Salazar y Palacios, a resident of the town, who he married on 12 December 1584. The Marriage Book documenting the wedding is kept in the church.

Catalina was the niece of the nobleman Alonso Quijada Salazar, who some researchers have seen as a source of inspiration for the immortal literary hero of Don Quixote. Don Alonso, a person who loved reading books on chivalry, gave up part of one of his houses for the married couple to live in: a typical two-storey stately home, with a cobblestoned patio accessed by a doorway, with exposed beam ceilings, and doors with ironwork and grilles on the windows, which we can still see today. Esquivias has preserved this famous mansion over time, and it is now the Cervantes House Museum.

Since 1979 without interruption, the Cervantes Days are held in mid-December in commemoration of the wedding between Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra and Catalina de Salazar y Palacios