Palacio de los Capitanes Generales

This guide to the Palacio de los Capitanes Generales in Havana traces a governor's very literal noise complaint: when captain general Miguel Tacón moved in in 1834, the ox-cart traffic outside his window drove him to set his engineers an experimental problem. You'll hear how they tried to solve it with hardwood paving blocks instead of stone, and why the fix that quieted his street never spread across the rest of Havana. The guide also lingers on the palace's coral-rock facade, still studded with fossilized seashells. Look down at the seam in the cobblestones as you walk it.