The longest you can realistically drive in a straight line in Spain before meeting the sea or colliding with the Portuguese border is a mere eleven hours. There, the simplest dish is elevated to local stardom, the best wine is the one that comes from the closest vineyard, and everyone’s hometown is “the most beautiful you will ever see.” Village pride takes on a whole new meaning in hamlets so insular that, in this modern age, outside faces are still out of the ordinary and noticed by the locals. Living in a city like Barcelona, so full of international energy that a dozen languages hang in the air as you make your morning commute, I sometimes forget how different things are in the true countryside of Spain, where people live and die by tradition and trade. Spain overflows with treasures, from Catalunya to Galicia, down to the strait of Gibraltar and back. Big cities like Madrid and Barcelona surely have their charms, but beyond these iconic hubs, a world of incredible experiences awaits within the little villages of the rugged Mediterranean Costa Brava that have inspired the likes of artists Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí within the bleached-white towns of the Andalucían Riviera on your way to Jerez de la Frontera and amidst the spine-tingling cliffs of Hemingway’s Ronda, so vividly described in one of the most sobering scenes of his benchmark novel, “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Your visit to Spain need not take on the predictable pace of one city on Tuesday, then bolting to a new city on Wednesday, with one too many museums (and perhaps a little party island hastily thrown in at the end to catch a quick sunburn) before jetting back to cooler climates.
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