TRURO , Cornwall's administrative capital, has a distinctly small-scale provincial feel, even if its Georgian villas do reflect the prosperity that came with the tin-mining boom of the 1800s. Blurring the town's overall identity, its modern shopping centre stands alongside the powerful but chronologically confused Cathedral . Completed in 1910, this was the first Anglican cathedral to be built in England since St Paul's in London, but it incorporates part of the fabric of the old parish church that previously occupied the site. The airy interior's best feature is its neo-Gothic baptistry, complete with emphatically pointed arches and elaborate roof vaulting. To the right of the choir, St Mary's aisle is a relic of the original Perpendicular building, other fragments of which adorn the walls, including - in the north transept -a colourful Jacobean memorial to local Parliamentarian John Robartes and his wife.

Truro's other unmissable attraction is the Royal Cornwall Museum (Mon-Sat 10am-5pm; £3), housed in an elegant Georgian building on River Street. The exhibits include minerals, Celtic inscriptions and paintings by Cornish artists.

Truro's tourist office is on Boscawen Street (Easter-May & Sept Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm, Sat 9.30am-1pm; June-Aug Mon-Fri 9am-5.30pm, Sat 9.30am-5.30pm; Oct-Easter Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat 9.30am-1pm; tel 01872/274555). Buses stop nearby at Lemon Quay, or near the train station on Richmond Hill. Among the best accommodation choices are the Gables , near the train station at 49 Treyew Rd (tel 01872/242318; under £40), the Bay Tree , 28 Ferris Town (tel 01872/240274; under £40), a restored Georgian house halfway between the station and the centre, and Patmos , 8 Burley Close, off Barrack Lane, where Lemon Street meets Falmouth Road (tel 01872/278018; no smoking; under £40). A good selection of Truro's restaurants lie on or around Kenwyn Street, including Number Ten at no. 10, where you'll find inexpensive international dishes (tel 01872/272363), and the Feast , at no. 15, which offers wholefoods and a choice of Belgian beers (daytime only; closed Sun). Elsewhere in town, Pizza Express on Boscawen Street is housed in the imposing old Coinage Hall, which sports carpets on the walls alongside portraits of various notables. On the corner of Frances and Castle streets, the Wig and Pen is a decent pub with bar food, real ale and live jazz.

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