I have to confess that until very recently the only Segovia that I knew of was Andrés Segovia the very well known guitarist. Then in October 2010 while looking at Google images for Roman ruins in the Iberian Peninsula, I discovered the Roman aqueduct at Segovia and read that it is almost 2000 years old, nearly 30 metres high and made with large blocks of stone with no cement! It was photographs of this incredible aqueduct that persuaded me to spend some time visiting Roman ruins in Spain and Portugal in January 2011.
Following two wonderful days at Merida we travelled north east stopping for the night at Avila, a beautiful medieval walled city and then on to Segovia the next morning. Segovia is approximately 70 kilometres north of Madrid and sits on a high rock which must have encouraged the Romans to create a city there as it would clearly have been easy to defend.
The Romans built their city at Segovia in the second half of the first century AD and having decided to build a settlement had only one major problem and that was to get a regular supply of water up to the town.
The nearest supply of water at a sufficient height was from the Fuenta Fria river in mountains 32 kilometres (20 miles) away. Undeterred they built the aqueduct and followed a design laid down by the very well know architect / engineer Vetruvius.
The aqueduct was damaged by the Moors but repaired during the reigns of Ferdinand and Isabella towards the end of the 15th century.
The old town of Segovia and its Aqueduct is classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
We were there for two days and enjoyed seeing the city and it's aqueduct immensely, for me anyway an important feature in my travels is to have a good lunch, this we achieved on both days, particularly the second day when we lunched at José Maria which is well known for its 'suckling pig', in fact we didn't see anyone eating anything else. The restaurant is well known throughout Spain and was packed with people and of course lunch was delicious. In the slide show to the right you will see a photograph of the outside of the restaurant and another of the headwaiter deftly chopping a pig into portions using the edge of a plate. A little later in our meal one of his assistants was a little less deft when imitating his boss's 'style and panache' managed to break the serving dish into two halves!! But unabashed he continued to serve his clients with their portions of suckling pig.