Murcia is a university city, a bishopric, and the capital of the autonomous region and province of the same name. Most Spanish people consider the city in the middle of a fertile vegetable-growing region to be a rather quiet provincial metropolis with a rural feel. But the well-preserved old town with its magnificent cathedral, numerous museums and student life definitely worth a visit. Murcia lies amidst a vast vegetable-growing plain, the Huerta de Murcia, and is protected in the north by the foothills of the Sierra de Orihuela, and in the south by the Cresta de Gallo.
