I visited this WHS in January 2022. Of all the inscribed colonial cities and towns I visited, Morelia was the one I found least interesting and the easiest to cover in 1 day, so much so that I decided to curtail 1 night as initially planned and add it to Guanajuato instead. In the end it turned out to be a wise choice although I still think that Morelia had enough historic sites as an ensemble to justify its inscription on the WH list apart from the fact that Morelia was the birthplace of several important personalities of independent Mexico and has played a major role in the country's history. Most probably we were just beginning to suffer from "colonial town fatigue"; I kept trying to imagine covering all of Spain's WHS in a month or so for example and I think some sites would suffer lower ratings without any "fault" of their own.

On the whole, just outside of the city centre, Michcoacan's capital Morelia is quite modern and has large Western-standard indoor parking lots on both sides of town. We parked our car at the huge Puerta Morelia indoor parking lot with full amenities (a rarity in Mexico) including free clean toilets. It is very convenient to enter and exit Morelia avoiding the traffic jams, but it is quite a long walk away. We didn't mind and seized the opportunity to discover more historic buildings and churches before arriving at the cathedral area. Another parking option would be parking at the other end of town, towards the aqueduct, especially if you're in a hurry and have less time to allow than us.

Morelia's OUV lies in its excellently preserved urban planning and more 200 historic buildings in pinkish stone (mostly one or two storeys hight due to earthquakes). In a way it reminded me a lot of Salamanca, Spain, although Morelia doesn't have any really top iconic building other than its cathedral which isn't the best I've seen in Mexico either. In fact, I think that its top attraction overall is perhaps its quaint aqueduct (the same one depicted on the 50 pesos banknote!) which runs through the main road from Fuente de las Tarascas to a couple of hundred metres further from the Church of Santa Maria de Guadalupe which as Els suggests in her review should not be missed for its colourful over-the-top interior decoration. Opposite the aqueduct there is a lovely park (Bosque Cuauhtemoc) where you can relax while gazing at the architecture of the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Alfredo Zalce (MACAZ).

Of all the historic buildings we visited, those that stood out for us, apart from those already mentioned above, were the Centro Cultural Clavijero (closed on Mondays), the Palacio de Gobierno (closed on weekends), the public library of the Universidad Michoacana (closed on weekends), the Palacio de Justicia (closed on weekends), the Conservatorio de las Rosas, the Templo de San Francisco, and the Templo del Carmen. For those who love Mexico's murals, there are plenty more to enjoy in Morelia. For those with a sweet tooth, Morelia will impress as they sell so many sweets that they even have a Museo del Dulce to visit. Make sure to try the local refreshing sweet "gaspacho" from Gaspachos El Güero de la Merced made with jicama, mango, pineapple, onions and local Cotija cheese.