Between abysses and crystals

Less than an hour from Madrid by AVE high-speed train lies a city where time has accumulated in layers rather than faded away. Cuenca boasts Roman roads, Moorish urban planning, a 16th-century convent perched on a precipice, and houses that literally hang over the abyss. Two days to create something from within this melting pot: one day working in the cloister of the former Convent of San Pablo and another at the Hanging Houses, descending into a Roman mine where the crystal that illuminated the Empire once glittered, and shaping, alongside a master craftsman, a sweet treat that has survived since the Mozarabic era. It's not a cultural getaway. It's working within a place with soul, and returning with your mind elsewhere.