Córdoba

Córdoba is a student city in the middle of Argentina, set in a valley ringed by green hills. Its colonial heart fits into a few streets around Plaza San Martín, where the whitewashed arcades of the Cabildo de Córdoba face the square. The Jesuits founded the country's first university here, and their great cattle estates out in the countryside are UNESCO-listed and still open. The city is young and stays up late: the bars and galleries along the Paseo del Buen Pastor fill after dark, close to the Church of the Sacred Heart, neo-Gothic and famous for its missing tower. All around lie the sierras — a long walk leads up Cerro Uritorco, known for the lights people claim to see above it, and condors ride the updraughts over Quebrada del Condorito National Park. Sunday means asado over a wood fire, and cuarteto, the dance music born here, still packs halls until the small hours.