At sunset, with the last rays of sun, the birdssing in the garden, and the flowersspread even more their heady aroma. Bell chimes, far-off or near, highlight this moment just before the first stars come out. It is then when those poems by Tirso de Molina in "Cigarrales de Toledo" seem to be written for the Hostal:

"Solamente ofrece entrada
Al regocijo esta puerta;
Para el contorno está abierta;
Para el disgusto cerrada,
De flores esta esmaltada,
No es bien que el pesar lasseque,
Ni en espinas rosas trueque
Quien ser su huesped espera,
Porque sola ha de reynar
El plazer el que gusto adquiera
¿Y el pesar?
¡No ha lugar!
Por más que la entrada intente,
Entre el plazer solamente
Y quédese el pesar fuera."

 

In words of Bartolomé Cosio, "Toledo is the town that offers the most complete and characteristic group of what land and civilization genuineSpanish have been. It is the brightest and most suggestive summary of motherland history. The traveller that disposes of just a day in Spain he must spend it without a doubt, visiting Toledo."