As an American, there’s no better way to celebrate a long weekend than by going to Spain and speaking exclusively Italian for three days. Wait, what?
Well that’s exactly what I did last weekend. April 25th was Liberation Day, a national holiday in Italy to celebrate their liberation at the end of World War II. Since I have Friday off anyway and the holiday was Saturday, I finally had an opportunity to do some weekend traveling! So late Thursday night my “big brother” Cristiano and I left Rome, and at about 2 am, we finally made it to our hostel. And bright and early the next morning, we began to explore beautiful Barcelona!
As weird as it sounds, our Spanish jaunt was a great Italian immersion experience for me; since I was with Cristiano the whole time, I only spoke 2 English sentences in the entire three days we were there. Italian and Spanish are similar enough that most Italians can get by pretty easily in Spain without knowing any Spanish – they all joke that to speak Spanish, you just speak Italian and add an “s” to the end of everything (it’s kind of true). My Italian is not good enough to fake Spanish, so this system didn’t really work for me. I spent a lot of the weekend depending on the Spanish skills that Cristiano garnered during his Erasmus (EU study abroad network) semester in Valencia. Even this wasn’t always enough, though – Barcelona is in the Catalonia region, where Catalan is spoken even more than Spanish. A couple of times, Cristiano started to ask a question in Spanish and the Spaniards answered him in English (many of the people in Barcelona/Catalonia dislike Spanish because the Catalan language and culture were suppressed for so many years, and the Catalan spirit and desire for independence is strong and evident). Cristiano’s Spanish also isn’t perfect – on our last night we had a lovely tapas dinner at a bar in the Raval neighborhood, but an Italian and an American reading a Spanish/Catalan menu just wasn’t gonna work. We had to ask for a menu in English; that way at least one of us was sure about what we were ordering.
Apart from 30-45 minute car rides through Lazio, this was the first time I’d traveled with Cristiano. He certainly made for a fun travel companion, with lots of sarcasm and teasing, last-minute hour-by-hour sightseeing plans, random photo ops, reassurance that I could speak English if I wanted to (which I didn’t! *flex*), and the usual disdain for selfies that I encounter from my male friends. As my first friend in Viterbo, he holds a special place in my heart, and probably will no matter how many times he makes his ridiculous “figlio più bravo” jokes or laughs at me for falling asleep on the metro, so it was really a treat to share the sights with him instead of seeing them all alone. We were also joined by his friend Serenesse, another Italian whom he met in Valencia and who now works in Barcelona. She was extremely sweet and excited to play tour guide for us in her adopted city, and despite her shaky understanding of the city metro system, the three of us had a ball together.
Barcelona is a gorgeous city, and its beauty was enhanced by the perfect summery weather we had on our first day there. Its charm is the opposite of Italy’s: all the streets are wide, clean, and tree-lined; there are separate bike and pedestrian lanes on the sidewalk; the pigeon flocks are relatively contained to certain areas; the buildings are stony but light and fairly modern-looking. Even the souvenir stands and street vendors seem sweet. And almost everywhere you look, you find something by Gaudì, the great architect of Barcelona. We started with the best of Gaudì Friday morning, passing two of his houses (Casa Battló and Casa Pedrera) on our way to his unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia. We didn’t go inside because the line was already crazy, but the outside is certainly impressive. It’s a beautifully unusual and modern twist on the classic cathedral; the bunches of fruit along the lower tier of columns add to the novelty too!
Just as we opened our trip with Gaudì, we closed it with him as well: We spent the better part of 3 or 4 hours on Sunday in Park Güell, the enormous public garden where Gaudì designed bridges and walkways and benches, as well as more funky houses in his distinctive style. Though we weren’t there during flower prime time, being surrounded by greenery, bridges built to mimic nature, and the most talented street musicians I have ever heard was a great way to spend an afternoon.
Of course there’s a lot more to Barcelona than swirly, colorful buildings. From the fountains of Placa Catalunya, we made several passes up and down La Rambla, the main street downtown that runs between Raval and the Gothic neighborhood (barri gòtic). It is enormous and beautiful, lined with trendy shops and restaurants, and always packed full of people. La Rambla itself was one of my favorite parts of Barcelona, and along it sits one of my other favorite things: the Mercat San Josep. It’s an incredible street market with fresh fish, meat, fruit and veggies, cheese, spices, paella and tapas bars, and delicious fruit juice/smoothie stands. I could have spent hours – and many euros – wandering and eating through the little alleyways created by the stands, but Cristiano eventually dragged me away to follow La Rambla down to the port, and then to find our way through the Gothic quarter. In this aptly named area, the buildings and the feeling of the streets changed starkly: we followed our map from the hostel through streets darker and narrower than the rest of the city, until we reached the (obviously) Gothic city cathedral, imposing and beautiful both in the midday Spanish sun and the cloudy Saturday morning glare. Serenesse also took us to see the church of Santa Maria del Mar in the El Born quarter, also near the port and just as beautiful as the main cathedral. We explored Parc de la Ciutadella with her Friday afternoon, a huge city park with fountains and a pond and adorable ducks. I loved getting a glimpse at the laid-back Spanish lifestyle as we laid in the grass amid dozens of Spaniards soaking up the sunshine and listening to a drum group play.
Although it may not be my favorite thing I saw of the city, the fountain at Montjuïc was certainly the most spectacular part of our trip. On the weekend they do fountain shows, which involve music and colored lights and “water acrobatics” – we sat mesmerized for more than half an hour Friday night, watching the water rise and fall in ever-changing patterns. It’s no wonder they call it the magic fountain.
I would be remiss not to mention the food. It was gooooood. I tasted churros for the first time, which are basically strips of fried dough covered in sugar – already amazing, and even better when you dip them in thick hot chocolate. The fruit smoothies in the street markets were also delicious and inventive – I tried several, but my favorite was blackberry and coconut. We made a meal out of tapas at least twice, including fried mini meat pies, patatas bravas (something I never wanted to see again after Menorca, but apparently 2 years is enough distance to let me appreciate them again), and calamari. But the highlight was the paella. Cristiano and I split a huge pan of seafood paella in the Gothic quarter on Friday night, and I polished off a tiny pitcher of sangria along with it. If I’m really good for the rest of my life, I think I will get to repeat that dinner for all eternity in Heaven. Nom.
So even though I didn’t get another stamp in my passport (inter-EU flights don’t have passport checks), I’ve crossed another country and another beautiful city off my list of places to visit. It was an exhausting weekend from which I still haven’t completely recovered, but it was completely worth it.
Vita, Vino, e Viterbo 
Barcelona is my favourite city!! Sounds like you had an amazing time!
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