Each year during the Feast of Corpus Christi, the famed autos sacramentals take over the town as the streets of Madrid are transformed into a carnival. Insightful and moving, these morality plays are performed on two-story-high wagons called carros that travel the city’s streets. Humans, saints, devil, and God mingle with such symbolic figures as Sin, Grace, and Pleasure as you mingle with the crowds and sample the delights of Spanish cuisine. But the productions aren’t all serious–the stages also present farces and dancing.

For year-round entertainment, Madrid has the Corral de la Cruz and the Corral del Principe, theaters built in the classic Italian style. Besides visits from commedia troupes (see Venice), these theaters feature plays by Spanish playwrights. One to watch–promising newcomer Lope de Vega.