Valencia, Spain

Valencia is the third-largest city in Spain, with roughly 800,000 residents living along the Turia River in the country's eastern region, and it was founded by the Romans in 138 BC. The Valencia Cathedral, consecrated in 1238, houses a chalice that it identifies as the 1st-century Holy Grail, and climbing the 207 steps of its 1425 Miguelete tower delivers wide views across the old quarter. After a devastating flood in 1957, the river was diverted and its dry bed was transformed into the 9-kilometer Turia Gardens, which now lead toward the 350,000-square-meter City of Arts and Sciences completed in 1998 and designed by Santiago Calatrava in white concrete. South of the city, the rice fields around Albufera lake are recognized as the place where paella originated. The dish still draws cooks here for reasons that reach deeper than habit.