Fodor's Expert Review San Millán de la Cogolla

This town, southeast of Santo Domingo de la Calzada, has two jaw-dropping monasteries on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list. There's Monasterio de Yuso, where a 10th-century manuscript on St. Augustine's Glosas Emilianenses contains handwritten notes in what is considered the earliest example of the Spanish language, the vernacular Latin dialect known as Roman Paladino. And then there's the Visigothic Monasterio de Suso ( www.monasteriodesanmillan.com), where Gonzalo de Berceo, recognized as the first Castilian poet, wrote and recited his 13th-century verse in the Castilian tongue, now the language of nearly 600 million people around the world.