The least well-known of Andalucía’s three great Moorish cities is in some ways the most fun to explore. There’s a clear division between the modern commercial center and the compact but site-rich old town, radiating out from the glorious Mezquita, the Western World’s greatest mosque. Dump the car as soon as you arrive, because the cramped streets of the Judería were not designed for the internal combustion engine. In any event the joy of the place is in milling about the cobblestone streets, ducking in and out of the seriously tacky, but strangely apt souvenir shops and peering through the gates at the splendid patios, where bijou fountains of azulejo tiles are the focal point of tiny flower-bedecked courtyards. For gardening aesthetic on a grander scale, linger in the Alcazarde los Reyes Christianos, which has topiary hedges, classical statues and cooling fountains and pools to admire, as well as stunning mosaics of Neptune and Psyche. It’s hard to believe that Córdoba was once the premier city of the Western World, the greatest metropolis west of Constantinople, and the seat of Europe’s first university. Get a beginner’s guide to the complementary philosophies of Muslims, Jews and Christians in the Córdoban Caliphate at the Calahorra Tower across the Roman bridge on the south side of the river. There’s a decent Museum of Fine Arts as well as one devoted to the works of Julio Romero de Torres, a local painter whose signature works of dark-eyed beauties caressing plump oranges stare from every postcard rack in the city.