More than a city

(Distance from home 1389 km). The attraction to this city perhaps began in 1994, the year of the Olympics in the Catalan capital, the first I can remember with some clarity. Seeing the TV images and understanding that this city must necessarily hide something magical. Quick in-and-out visits on school trips; this time we really set off to discover Barcelona, whose very sound enchants, with its colours, its traditions and its palpable vitality. Ryanair flight, hotel booked as usual through Booking.com (Hotel Principal), recommended as it is located very close to the Boqueria market and the Rambla.

Some general observations about Barcelona: the airport is very close, reachable by shuttle in about 20 minutes; the transport network works well; the climate, if mild, is very pleasant (in January we even got an out-of-season tan); the food is nothing short of spectacular, and the people kind, sunny and (it's obvious but it's really true) very similar to Italians. In fact, not by chance, the Italian community is the largest foreign group in the city, and it's really quick to get in tune with local rhythms and habits: dining at 20:00 means finding yourself surrounded solely and exclusively by tourists with guidebooks in hand who, like you, chose that restaurant because it was recommended. We bought the 5-day card for using public transport, with discounts for a few museums, but in the end, doing the sums, it wasn't all that convenient.

In Barcelona, everything seems destined for pure aesthetic taste and the highest expressions of imagination, from the street lamps to the benches, and walking down the street is like passing through places that have something fantastic about them and develop a natural feeling that leads to the sensation of walking in a beautiful place, not only in purely visual terms but also in practical ones. Barcelona is an incredible mix of colours, scents, sounds and images that you can hardly find in other cities, and even if it may annoy someone, I far preferred it to Madrid also for the simple fact that there's the sea. It's hard to keep a detailed diary of 6 days, so I'll limit myself to reporting what in our opinion should absolutely be seen, with a small premise about the person who made Barcelona one of the most visited cities in Europe:

Antoni Gaudí: I knew nothing about the Catalan architect, but learning about his works truly struck me like lightning. Colours, lines that today seem established but at the artist's time were seen as more than daring, a philosophy of life that can be seen realised in everything he created. Everything under our eyes without a logic was created because it was logical in functionality and aesthetics. A true genius who, like all geniuses, is appreciated later. Incredible was his fate: hit by a tram and mistaken for an ordinary tramp at the moment of the accident, because by then he lived in a scruffy way with the obsession of his last work, the Sagrada Família, for which his original project is still followed. Seeing his works, one can only conclude: this man was a true genius!

Boqueria market: an explosion of colours and flavours. Wander through the market aisles, perhaps tasting, from one stall to another, ham cut into cubes or sipping one of the many smoothies on offer

Sagrada Família: those who visited it before 2011 definitely advised against it, describing it as an extraordinary work from the outside but a building site inside. Well, Barcelona's most representative work is a spectacle in the truest sense of the word, and although we didn't take the lifts because the tickets had sold out, we spent at least three hours with our noses in the air listening to the Italian audio guide describing this work of extraordinary beauty born from the genius of Gaudí, who even slept inside it during the early period of construction. It seems incredible that that structure with such bold and bizarre features could be unreal.

Casa Batlló: Another extraordinary work by the Catalan architect, absolutely not to be missed. It feels like being inside a fairy-tale house and the impression is always that of being inside something unreal where, however, everything is realised functionally and not purely for aesthetic reasons. Fantastic

Park Güell: I really would have liked to be one of the wealthy people who were supposed to live within this area. Born in fact as something exclusive, the park of “wonders” really seems a fairy-tale world, a free zone created by the imagination of its creator. Absolutely worth visiting in the hours of least crowding, since the beauty of the place makes it a magnet for tourists who go wild before the beauty of the place and the beauty of the view of the city you can enjoy from the park's terrace.

Gothic Quarter and Rambla: the quarter lies alongside the Rambla, the street full of life that links Plaça Catalunya to the sea, with all its eccentric street artists. The quarter, with its cathedral, hides alleyways and corners of incredible beauty.

Plaça d'Espanya and magic fountain: climb to the top of the square's staircase, from which you enjoy a fine view over the city, and sit on the steps shortly before the start of the fountain show, with colours and jets of water moving to the rhythm of music.

Camp Nou: perhaps the only thing in which Madrid beats Barcelona. The Bernabéu is architecturally more pleasant than the Camp Nou. The museum inside, for a football fan, is something not to be missed: a thrill is the passage through the tunnel towards the pitch, inside which the stadium chants are blasted at full volume, with the adrenaline that fires you up and it truly seems that at any moment you'll have to sprint down the wing to collect a pass.

Olympic port area: a very pleasant walk, ideally to be done at sunset with the sun colouring the whole surroundings. Along the promenade, which starts from the cable car that leads up to the castle, there are beach artists creating sand monuments.

Palau de la Música Catalana: little known but of a beauty that leaves you breathless. We did the visit only because on the last day a slot had opened up in which we didn't know what to do. There are times for the visits, which are conducted in Spanish and English (in any case the Spanish one is very understandable), and the only flaw is the ban on photos inside. Incredible!

Climbing the Columbus monument isn't an unmissable thing like the Arc de Triomf and Montjuïc castle; still, if you have time it doesn't hurt, which is not true instead for the cable car, during which you get a breathtaking view over the city. A small note on the costs, in our opinion too high, for the cable cars you have to take to reach the castle.

Tasty tips: El Rey de la gamba in Barceloneta: absurd portions at very low prices for paella and fideuà, absolutely worth trying; Restaurant 7 Portes, perhaps the best where we ate paella. Don't miss even a taste at the chocolate museum and a visit to Gispert. In general, in the Barceloneta area and the Gothic Quarter you find great little places, but one thing that in our opinion you shouldn't forgo in Barcelona is an exquisite crema catalana after a tour of tapas bars, accompanied by a nice glass of Sangria, but made on the spot.