Tag Archives: medieval

Barcelona, Catalonia Incoming

Heart of Catalonia: wine, food and medieval monasteries

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Just 30 minutes driving from Barcelona, the Bages is an inland region full of history, landmarks like Montserrat and an old tradition of excellent food and wine. We decided to discover a small piece of this land visiting Artium cellar and Món Sant Benet monastery. It was a gastronomic, cultural and historical journey to the heart of Catalonia. In this post we explain all what we learnt, what we ate and what we drank in this one day trip from the well known capital of Catalonia. As always, we try to recommend unknown but valuable sites and experiences out of Barcelona. Hope this post is useful for your next trip to this mediterranean country.

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Artium Caves: underground

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Europe, Spain

Peníscola, white and blue

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Peníscola is a medieval town built on a rock hill between two beaches in the north of Castelló province in Spain. Birthplace of a pope and shooting location for Game of Thrones, Peníscola mixes a medieval castle with white painted houses and the Mediterranean sea as background landscape.

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The lighthouse and a sailboat seen from the castle

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Europe, Spain

Cáceres and Trujillo: a journey to the medieval Spain

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If you love old towns and historical sites as much as we do, you will be happy to know that there is a hidden region in Spain where you can find, among others, a city built from the old Roman town of Emerita Augusta (now named Mérida), a monastery with a wonderful Mudejar cloister devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe (in the village with the same name) and the two medieval gems appearing in this post. That region, Extremadura, was the land of famous Spaniard conquerors of the New World. But today Extremadura still remains unconquerable to the great number of tourists that visit Spain year after year.

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Typical landscape of Extremadura seen from the Trujillo castle

Our journey to Portugal led us to cross the entire Iberian Peninsula by car and to enter the Portuguese region of Alentejo from Extremadura. On that trip I realised that amazing places can be found quite close and Cáceres and Trujillo are two living examples of that which have even served as the location of Game of Thrones due to their amazing architecture.

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Europe, Italy

Lost in Tuscany

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We love Italy, that amazing country surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, home of the Occidental culture, a land of art and gastronomy. Italy is a synonym of good wine, better music and lots of romanticism. And the best part of it is that we are quite close to such a paradise. So there was no better way to celebrate Dídac’s birthday last summer than a short break to Tuscany.

Despite our trip mainly took place between Pisa and Firenze, we decided to rent a car in Pisa to spend a day driving (without map and without GPS!) to discover some hotspots in the region. In our plan we had two must stops: San Gimignano and Siena, but we still had time to end our day with a nice dinner in Monteriggioni.

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Our Cinquecento in the typical Tuscany landscape

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Catalonia Incoming, Tarragona

Siurana, the balcony of Priorat

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Some days ago we had the opportunity to visit Siurana during our Easter break. Siurana (also called Siurana de Prades) is a nice village located in the municipality of Cornudella de Montsant, in the Tarragona province. It is part of the Priorat region, the land that produces the well-known wine that is traded from Catalonia to the world.

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View of Siurana from Cornudella de Montsant (thanks to the zoom!)

We had always seen Siurana in photos: that fantasy village located at the top of a cliff (more than 700 metres high), with amazing views to the Montsant mountains, a place highly visited by rock climbers. So we couldn’t wait to plan a visit to the village and its region. You will also see a water reservoir placed at Siurana’s feet where you can practise some aquatic activities.

Nowadays, you will see that the Romanesque church of Santa Maria de Siurana stands out in the skyline. However, Siurana was the last Moorish bastion in Catalonia, and they say that knights of four counties were needed to conquer the village. In view of its incredible location, it’s easy to understand why.

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