San Miguel de Allende is like a beautifully refined woman with  red lipstick. The lady in red.  There was a time, though, around the beginning of the last century, when this lady had few admirers.  Enter then  in the late 1930’s and 1940’s artists and writers from far away places (U.S., Canada, Europe) who established two important and still vital schools, the Instituto Allende and the Escuela de Bellas Artes. After World War II, American veterans, taking advantage of the GI Bill, came to San Miguel to study and even to return later in their lives to live. Attracted by the new cosmopolitan and cultural nature of the city, more and more came to add new life to the city.  

So where do you begin in this beautiful city if you only have three full days? ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/irene-s-levine/10-reasons-why-people-fal_b_3721022.html)…. Stay in one of the luxury hotels, spas included?  Eat great cuisine?  Listen to great music?   Shop hours for the unusual?  Visit interesting museums?   With so many choices for a perfect visit you could also do what we did and what many visitors do: wander and explore with an open agenda and no expectations.  Actually, this is how we came across the Instituto Allende one night, without knowing where we were.  We entered and were struck by the murals and courtyard.  There was a party going on at the back of the building with musicians and laughter and a view of the distant lights of the city and the cathedral.  I came back another day in the afternoon to explore and see the murals in daylight.  

The first thing we did on the day we arrived, after checking into our hotel, was to walk up three steep blocks to the “jardin” with laurel trees and iron benches, much like in Guanajuato.  Pick any side street from there and you are off to other adventures.  Our last full day in San Miguel we took a cab from our hotel to the market and then in search of the Calzado de la Aurora. This is a street with many antique shops that in the end will lead you to the Fabrica Aurora.

 Once a textile factory and still an interesting building (you’ll see some of the old machines used in manufacturing).   Fabrica Aurora is filled with studios and stores of antiques, artist created jewelry and clothing and fine art.  Careful!  I got lost in there but that was part of the fun of it.

Of the several times we found ourselves in the garden square, the large doors of the Parroquia were closed.  I finally found the doors open on our last day, a Saturday.  One of our taxi drivers in the city  had told me that there are at least 17 destination weddings on any given weekend.  So on this particular Saturday in the Parroquia I waited to see the bride of the afternoon as she entered and walked down the long aisle.

Whatever your plans for your visit to San Miguel,  there’s little chance you”ll go wrong.