Callejon del Beso

Guanajuato is a city of callejones - stepped alleys threading a ravine so tight that houses lean across it - and one alley, barely 68 centimetres wide at its narrowest, made a career of it. The legend runs as legends do: Ana, daughter of a violent, wealthy father, and Carlos, a miner beneath her station, who rented the room opposite so the lovers could reach across the gap from balcony to balcony; discovered, the story ends with a dagger, a last kiss on the hand, and a curse-turned-tradition. Couples now climb to the third step of the alley's stair and kiss for seven years of luck - or, the vendors add cheerfully, seven years of bad luck if they skip it. The alley is one of Mexico's most photographed metres of masonry, ringed by souvenir stalls, serenading students in the evening callejoneadas, and guides retelling the tale with theatrical variation. It is small, kitsch-adjacent and genuinely charming in the way the whole city is - stone, gossip, guitars and improbable geometry.

What you actually see

• The gap - balconies close enough to touch across.
• The third step - the kiss and its seven years.
• The stalls and guides - the legend retold hourly.
• The callejoneada - student minstrels leading crowds by night.

When to go

Evenings for the atmosphere and the callejoneada troupes; mornings if you want the alley without the queue. Any season.

Honest expectations

It is a queue for a photograph at a very small place - go with humour, not expectations of solitude. The stairs are steep and slick after rain. The story has as many versions as guides.

Nearby

The Pipila lookout, the university steps, Juarez theatre and the mummy museum are all within the centre's walkable tangle.