Lazarillo de Tormes: Salamanca to Toledo

Lázaro introduces himself as the son of parents "naturales de Tejares, aldea de Salamanca", and claims he was born in the river itself. His father ran a mill on the bank of the Tormes, and one night his pregnant mother went into labour there. The Tormes, which gives the boy his surname, runs 284 kilometres to the Duero. Tejares, then a small village, is now a neighbourhood of Salamanca.

Location precision: The book names the hamlet of Tejares and the river but not the mill; the pin marks Tejares.

Visitor guidance: Tejares is now a neighbourhood of Salamanca, on the Tormes.

Leaving Salamanca with his new master, a blind beggar, Lázaro reaches the bridge, where a stone animal "casi tiene forma de toro" stands at the entrance. The blind man tells him to put his ear to it and listen to the noise inside, then slams the boy's head into the stone. Lázaro says he woke "from the simplicity" of a sleeping child. Today the stone boar still stands at the entrance of the Roman bridge, although only the first fifteen of its twenty-six arches are Roman.

Visitor guidance: The stone boar stands at the entrance of the Roman bridge.

On the road towards Toledo the pair reach Almorox at the grape harvest, and a picker gives the blind man a bunch of grapes as alms. The fruit is so ripe that it falls apart in his hand and turns to juice in the bag. Almorox is a small town in the province of Toledo; its church of San Cristóbal dates from the 16th century.

Location precision: The novel names only the village; the pin marks Almorox itself.

Visitor guidance: The church of San Cristóbal is in the town.

At an inn in Escalona, "villa del duque", the blind man sends Lázaro for wine, and Lázaro swaps the sausage for a turnip. Then, in the rain, he leads his master to a stone pillar in the square, tells him it is the narrowest point of the stream, jumps behind it, and the blind man charges. His head hits the post with a sound like a great gourd, and he drops half dead. Lázaro runs. Escalona's most characteristic building today is its 15th-century Mudéjar castle.

Location precision: The novel does not say which inn or square; the pin marks the castle of Escalona.

Visitor guidance: The castle stands in the town.

Fleeing, Lázaro reaches Maqueda, where a priest takes him on as his altar helper. He soon discovers the man keeps all food in an old chest locked with a key tied to his cassock. After three weeks Lázaro can barely stand from hunger. He says he escaped the thunder and met the lightning, since next to this priest the blind man was an Alexander the Great. The town is best known for its Castillo de la Vela.

Location precision: The priest's house is not described; the pin marks the town's castle.

Visitor guidance: The Castillo de la Vela is in the town.

Hurt and hungry, Lázaro reaches "esta insigne ciudad de Toledo" and finds a third master, a proud squire whose house holds only bare walls: no chair, bench or table. The squire begs him to tell no one they live together, for the sake of his honour. Years later Lázaro is a town crier who helps hang a thief in Toledo, and the book ends the year the emperor held Cortes there.

Location precision: The book names the city but no street or house; the pin marks the centre of Toledo.

Visitor guidance: The old town is compact and best explored on foot.