Places I Remember with Lea Lane
On this monthly award-winning travel podcast, host Lea Lane shares travel memories and travel tips with passionate travelers, travel experts, and savvy locals around the world. Lea has traveled to over 100 countries, is the author of nine books, a blogger at forbes.com, and a contributor to dozens of guidebooks. Smart. Fun! Over 100 episodes!
Places I Remember with Lea Lane
Barcelona: Roman Ruins, Beaches, Gaudí's Masterpieces
Barcelona, where Roman foundations meet Gaudí's fantastical creations, has captivated travelers for generations—becoming the ninth most visited city worldwide.
Antoni Gaudí's Sagrada Familia Basilica, has been under construction for over a century. At Park Güell, Gaudí's connection with nature manifests in colorful mosaics and whimsical structures. The Casa Batlló, with its dragon-spine rooftop and ocean-inspired interiors, offers an immersive experience through cutting-edge digital tours.
Barcelona also reveals architectural treasures like Luis Domènech i Montaner's Palau de la Música Catalana—a concert hall of unparalleled beauty—and the Hospital de Sant Pau, designed with the concept that beautiful surroundings promote healing. The Gothic Quarter's labyrinthine streets lead to hidden courtyards and medieval squares, while nearby Las Ramblas pulses with the energy of street performers and market vendors.
Barcelona offers tapas culture at its finest. From simple pan con tomate to elaborate seafood paellas, the city's gastronomic scene bridges traditional and innovative cooking. La Boqueria market is a must.
September's La Mercè features the spectacular human towers called castellers, while April's St. Jordi's Day transforms Barcelona into a celebration of literature and romance through the exchange of books and roses.
Whether exploring expansive Collserola Park, taking day trips to Montserrat's jagged mountain monastery, or simply soaking in Mediterranean coastal vibes, Barcelona leaves visitors "spiritually, mentally, and physically fulfilled." Join us to discover why this Catalan capital continues to enchant travelers from around the world.
**
Guest Angelo Carotenuto is founder of LivTours designing small group tours throughout Europe, exploring and preserving local cultures while engaging in sustainable tourism. One of his very favorite destinations is Barcelona.
**
Podcast host Lea Lane has traveled to over 100 countries, and has written nine books, including the award-winning Places I Remember (Kirkus Reviews star rating, and 'one of the top 100 Indie books of the year'). She has contributed to many guidebooks and has written thousands of travel articles.
_____
Our award-winning travel podcast, Places I Remember with Lea Lane, has dropped over 115 travel episodes! New episodes drop on the first Tuesday of the month, on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen.
_____
Travel vlogs of our featured podcasts-- with video and graphics -- now drop on YouTube . Please subscribe, like, and comment.
****************************************
Website: https://placesirememberlealane.com
Travel Blog: forbes.com
BlueSky: lealane.bsky.social
X (Twitter):@lealane
Instagram: PlacesIRemember
Barcelona, Spain's second largest city and the biggest city on the Mediterranean, is the cosmopolitan capital of Spain's Catalonia region. It's a mix of historic charm and modern innovation, and at times, tourists outnumber the local residents. In fact, Barcelona is the ninth most visited city in the world. In Barcelona, both Spanish and Catalan are the distinct official languages. I visited there maybe a dozen times, often at the start of a cruise, as many cruise lines use Barcelona as a major port.
Lea Lane:The city was founded by Romans, who set up a colony called Barsino at the end of the first century BC. The colony had about a thousand inhabitants and was bounded by a defensive wall, which you can still see today in the old town. Besides its Roman origins, Barcelona is known for its medieval Gothic quarter and its role as a major maritime power in the Mediterranean. There's so much to delight travelers and to talk about. Our guest is Angelo Carotenuto, founder of LivT ours. Angelo designs small group tours throughout Europe, exploring and preserving local cultures while engaging in sustainable tourism, and one of his very favorite destinations is Barcelona. Welcome, Angelo, to Places I Remember.
Angelo Caratenuto:Thank you for having me.
Lea Lane:Well, you conduct tours all over Europe. What makes Barcelona stand out among other destinations to you?
Angelo Caratenuto:Well, that's a great question, Lea. So I'm born and raised in Rome, and the reason why I founded the tours in Italy is because Italy is the perfect playground to make people's emotion come to life.
Angelo Caratenuto:When Christine and I were looking to expand our horizon and offer tours outside, and you have day trips outside of Barcelona that are just incredible. Wonderful, warm and historic spirit. It's a mi a
Lea Lane:Everybody seems to love Barcelona. It's delightful to talk a little bit more about the details and why it is such. I know it's known for art and architecture. In 1999, it became the only city awarded the prestigious Gold Medal for Architecture by the Royal Institute of British Architects. It has nine UNESCO World Heritage Sites, seven of which are works by Antoni Gaudí. The most famous is the Sagrada Familia basilica. It's a masterpiece of Catalan modernism architecture, the most famous work that Gaudí made. It took 100 years. It's going to be finished supposedly in 2026, but it took longer to construct than it took the Incas to build Machu Picchu at the top of Peru's mountains. How do you suggest seeing this wonderful site?
Angelo Caratenuto:What you just stated is incredible, because in the past 10 years since we've been serving tours at Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, I've gone back maybe I don't know 20 times and it's never been the same. Every time I go and visit there's a new tower or a new entrance, or a new facade for that matter, and the last thing they're really trying to do is create the frontal facade, finish up the 16 towers they're almost there and then the frontal facade, which is going to have the beautiful staircase and the square in front of it, but guess what? There is a apartment building right in front of it that they're going to have to move residents out of, tear down and create what Gaudi's original view of the entrance to the church was. There's long lines.
Angelo Caratenuto:I don't think you can buy tickets on the spot, so you have to pre-book tickets. There's a pretty easy to use website or buy yourself a tour, because the amount of content that the Sagrada Familia offers you, both outside and inside, is so spectacular, and maybe even on the verge of overwhelming, that having somebody just make sense of it and clear your mind on it and make you appreciate the symbolism, the iconic looks of it or just simply the connection with nature that Gaudi had is crucial. So book a tour, book online a ticket.
Lea Lane:I was there recently and you had to book a tour. We did so just to see the next iteration. I've seen it go up. I think maybe now 40 years back and forth. It was so exciting. It's a perfect moment. It's about to be finished soon. If they can figure out all the stuff with the apartment, it's just one of the great works of art of humanity. And so much fun. I mean, it's just exuberant. It's hard to describe colors and shapes A Disney on steroids, but real, it's super. Another great piece by Gaudi is his park Park Gaiul. Originally meant to be a luxury housing development, but two houses were built there. It was a financial failure, but it has become one of the world's most popular attractions. Tell us about the park.
Angelo Caratenuto:So, yes, that's where there were supposed to be some developments for some luxury houses that would have overlooked the city center and the ocean. Gaudí was instructed, was commissioned to build this residence. We only have the park left. There is still a school I think it's an elementary school and a couple of homes, Colorful mosaic benches, you've got lizard sculptures and all of these houses that kind of really feel out of a fairy tale. And that's because Gaudí had this incredible connection with nature. He would get himself lost as a child in long hikes in the forests where he grew up and created this connection with every element of nature that then he reproduces in his architecture and his curves. Everything reminds you of the flow of nature Forests. It can be a wave, the twirl of a wind, an animal, it could be the inside of a whale. It could be a wave, the twirl of a wind, an animal, it could be the inside of a whale. Incredible capacity of architecture. To be completely honest with you, I'm replicated worldwide.
Lea Lane:Creative to the max, individual, fabulous and well worth going to see. I used to go there and it was free. Now you have to get tickets. It's very popular. Obviously, a small number are admitted every hour, so you want to book ahead. You can get a pass to visit both the Sagrada Familia and the park. Get two of them, you'll save time there. Wonderful buildings of Gaudi all around the city. Two of the most famous are Casa Batllo you mentioned that one and that's my favorite.
Angelo Caratenuto:Major promenade going north from Plaza de Catalunya, which would be the biggest roundabout in Barcelona. At the end of Ramblas ramblas ramblas ramblas, a big shopping street nowadays, there is some very beautiful buildings, two of which are Gaudí pieces One is Casa Batlló and one is La Pedrera, or also known as Casa Mila. The most spectacular thing is that there's people living in there, exactly that. These are actual apartment buildings, parts of which now have become visitable to the public. These were places made for people to live in, with proper heating and bedrooms and kitchens and so forth, but it is the case.
Angelo Caratenuto:Casa Batllio's visit now is unique. They have created this very interactive digital visit with a audio video guide. Very well done. It's prime work, and I've been to museums all over the world and I don't think I've seen anything like that and with video that shows you characters and furniture reconstruction, the staircase in the center where you are climbing up into an ocean column with all these beautiful blue mosaics and the apartment doors and the natural light coming through, and then at the very top, the terrace and you're inside the dragon's back, which is the dragon that you see from the streets, and it's inside the vertebras of the dragon, which back in the day, was a way to collect the water, the rainwater for the apartment building. So it's just incredible. But when you're done, you climb upward to the terrace. Tickets must be purchased in advance. Casa Batlló sells out very, very quickly.
Lea Lane:You can see why. The view from the roof, by the way, the terrace, is fantastic. You see the whole wonderful layout of Barcelona, which is very interesting the way it's in squares of Barcelona, which is very interesting the way it's in squares. The other famous one, Casa Mila or Pedrera, is easily seen from the street. Do stop in front of Pedrera. It's an undulating stone facade. It has wrought iron balconies resembling seaweed. It's just really interesting.
Angelo Caratenuto:There's two reasons why I would suggest to go to Pedrera. It's because when you get to the terrace of Pedrera, you have an unmatched view of Casa Batllio.
Lea Lane:is because when you get to the terrace of Pedrera, you have unmatched view of Casa Batlló. There's other great architecture beyond Gaudí. There are two UNESCO sites by a wonderful architect, Luis Domenech Montaner, and one of them I just adore. It's the Palau de la Música Catalana. Tell us about that gorgeous concert hall.
Angelo Caratenuto:Yeah it's hands down the most stunning concert hall in the world when you actually enter the main room green stained glass, the sculptures, the rich details. We were lucky to be there. They were doing some rehearsals for the evening concerts. There wasn't just outrageously designing shapes and sculptures and iconic symbolism and stuff like that. Everything was meant for the greatest acoustic experience. We call it the Opera House of Barcelona, but it's not just used for opera. It's used for any sort of live music of any time, any age, any region, any cultural background.
Lea Lane:Like the Stones. You can see the Rolling Stones there??
Angelo Caratenuto:That's exactly right, they need a bigger venue. They need the stadium, but there have been rock bands.
Lea Lane:The architecture was music to me. The other beautiful building by the same architect, again built around 1905, 1908, is the Hospital de Saint-Pau. It was designed because doctors believe beautiful surroundings help the patients heal faster. So there's gardens and colorful tiles and it's just beautiful as well.
Angelo Caratenuto:It's less touristy, it's less busy, it's less touristy because it's also used as a conference hall and for meetings and, believe it or not, it was an active hospital until 2009. So very, very recent. I absolutely adore the fact that healing doesn't just come from medicine or chemistry. It's all these pavilions surrounded by beautiful gardens and interconnected by underground hallways so that you wouldn't get your view outside of your hospital room obstructed and you could see the gardens and you could see the rest of the pavilions freely.
Lea Lane:I think that sums up Barcelona. It's a consciousness of art of all sorts, and that's what makes it so special. Let's go outside a bit. There are some gorgeous parks, parked at Montjuic with its magic fountain. You want to tell us a little bit about that?
Angelo Caratenuto:Yes, absolutely. Now you may need a little bike, unless you want to take a taxi ride. From experience climbing Montjuic with your bike is actually quite interesting and quite fun. The views from there are spectacular. What's fun is that there's a completely different temperature between what's happening in Barcelona and what's happening in Montjuic.
Angelo Caratenuto:But it is a way to distract yourself from the city. Liet, Christine and I are so in love with Barcelona we're thinking about moving our family there. Most of Barcelona is being made pedestrian. The post-industrial revolution quadrants that have been developed to expand the city are being made either bike-friendly or completely pedestrianized. So it's not extremely chaotic unless you're going to the very traffic-y promenades or very traffic-y roads. But if you want to get out, then you take a bike ride and you go to Montreux. No oasis Further out, but I would go to Montserrat, Go to the monastery of Montserrat.
Lea Lane:Which is huge and very interesting mountain Jagged peaks. You get that so close to the city. It's a wonderful day trip or even an afternoon trip, yeah absolutely these teeth-like mountains, out of which was built the monastery.
Angelo Caratenuto:It is a half a day trip. You could combine it with just around the corner there's a lot of beautiful vineyards and you could do some kava tasting in the afternoon. My suggestion would be to get Montserrat at its opening before the big tourist buses get there. Get there by nine so that you can go into the monastery and specifically get into the church to see the Black Mary and walk right under it and, if you're lucky enough, you catch the children's choir singing and practicing before they go to their morning classes.
Lea Lane:Sounds heavenly. Yeah, literally. Okay, let's come back down a bit to the Gothic Quarter. It's a wonderful city center. It's got the Barcelona Cathedral, as opposed to the Basilica we have talked about before by Gaudi, and it has famous squares and picturesque streets. It's just fun. There's a walking tour there for tapas. Tapas are the great everyone knows by now. Little bites that started, I believe, in that area, right In Barcelona area. You can walk around and sample tapas at different little cafes, local wines, fascinating stories. Have you done that?
Angelo Caratenuto:Yeah, absolutely. We're very proud to have tours called Tapas Tour with Flamenco Show, and it happens in the Gothic Quarter. Another Spanish term for it would be racion, small portions, rations, right, rations. You get pages and pages of venues, of different rations, the most popular, which is a piece of bread semi-toasted, that could be an open piece of regular pizza bread rubbed with olive oil, salt and tomato, all the way to beautiful platter of jamon or patas bravas, or green peppers, or more elaborate croquettes, or vegetables sauteed, or fish sometimes, or bread with certain types of delicatessen fish on top.
Angelo Caratenuto:But the Spaniards, catalonians, generally, don't do tapas hopping, sort of the Italian aperitivo or the pub scene for the Brits. Right, I'm done with a day's work, I'm going to go get some tapas, have a glass of wine, a beer, a cerveza or a sangria and enjoy two or three, four bites. What we do in tours is we do tapas hopping, because different bars have different histories, different connections, maybe different neighborhoods have different connections with different parts of food, and then we end with a flamenco show which is not very Barcelonian.
Lea Lane:Oh, but it's beautiful.
Angelo Caratenuto:But it is beautiful.
Lea Lane:That's part of Barcelona.
Lea Lane:You never know what to expect Exactly. Yeah, we're talking about food. I would mention paella is very popular because you're near the sea and you get fresh seafood. That's another specialty. I do want to mention Las Ramblas, which is near the Gothic area. It's the busiest street in Barcelona. It's really five boulevards that combined into one long promenade. It is flower stalls and street musicians and living statues. It's touristy, but everybody goes there at some point. I do want to warn about something the pickpockets. It is true, I have been pickpocketed. Oh yeah, you do have to watch it. It's part of Barcelona. You can't have perfection, right? Just say, be careful there in that area. Isn't the market nearby the?
Angelo Caratenuto:Boqueria? Yeah, absolutely so. La Ramblas is this road that goes from the touristic port all the way to Plaza de Catalunya, the expansion of the Gothic quarter that we were just talking about. All of a sudden, this labyrinth of alleyways and Roman ruins and Gothic quarters and municipal squares and hidden courtyards, very Spanish-looking quarter, is interrupted by this two-lane road with a big pedestrian center with coffee shops and restaurants and cafes and street performers and, unfortunately, pickpocketers. Very traffic-y because people use it to hop in and out of the Gothic Quarter and the University Quarter, which is on the other side.
Angelo Caratenuto:But besides a concert hall, a couple of hotels and all these cafes and restaurants and shoppings, there's the Bacqueria, and the Bacqueria is the market, the main market, the most historical market of Barcelona. You can shop as a Barcelonian or you can stop at the stands and sample freshly cooked food, anything from fresh shrimp to a steak, all the way to a paella, as you said, or just bits and pieces of little fried food that you can choose among the various stands. It's nothing like you would find in the US, but it is something to do as you're going through, sampling and looking at fresh food and how locals do their shopping. All of a sudden, you can sit down and have a proper meal. It's inside a very vibrant market. Which gorgeous architecture great glass windows at the top. It's gorgeous.
Lea Lane:I agree, if you want to get away from the crowd. I just want to mention two parks that I love. One is in the El Born district, which is the center. It's the beautiful city park from the World Exhibition of 1888. There are fountains and a zoo and wonderful places to sit.
Lea Lane:I found this out, which is kind of interesting, that Gustav Eiffel wanted to build the Eiffel Tower in Barcelona for the 1888 exposition, but Spain rejected the plan. It thought that the Eiffel Tower would be aesthetically non-pleasing, so he took his famous landmark to Paris. What do you think about that? You can't have it all. No, you can give Paris something right. And there's another park I love because it's huge. It's called the Rolla Park. It's the world's largest metropolitan park. It's approximately 20,000 acres; that's more than 22 times the size of Central Park in New York and there's many species of animals, hiking trails. It's right in the city so you don't have to go far to feel nature.
Lea Lane:I do want to mention the museums. Barcelona was home to famous artists like Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Joan Moreau, and Antoni Gaudi. Picasso spent his formative years studying there and there's a marvelous museum with over 4,000 of his works, and what I loved about it is you can see his earliest works. When he was a child. His father was an art teacher, and when you see 13-year-old Picasso replicating some of the great paintings of the world and they're beautiful you can see he could do everything, even as a child. He's so gifted. It's so interesting to visit there. I think the museum scene is special.
Angelo Caratenuto:Close to the park that we were just mentioning, and if you want a little bit less touristy and a little bit more local tapas experience or food experience in general, El Born is a great neighborhood.
Angelo Caratenuto:El Born is just as characteristic as the Gothic Quarter, maybe even more, and so to find the Picasso Museums encastamated and trapped in there It adds the extra layer of atmosphere, with old stone courtyards and winding staircases and so forth. Yes, it is important to know that you're not going to be seeing the Picasso you may be accustomed to or you may expect him, because these are the formative years and he was more of a realist at that time, but he was being influenced. And so one of the highlights that people go and see at the Picasso Museum is the La Menina series, which is sort of an honor to. It's a take on the painting by Velázquez and he deconstructs it about 20 different versions of it, and every version is more abstract and more playful than the previous one. So certainly a unique part of that museum that you're not going to be seeing in any other coastal museums because there are many in Spain.
Lea Lane:Yeah, you can see the evolution that's beginning there. I want to mention the coastal fishing villages that surround and go all along the coast. You can go and take a 30-minute drive and you're in this wonderful town, Sitges. It's got a promenade along the beach, it's got 17 beaches there, museums. I just love it. It's a cute old town and just you feel like you're absolutely in the heart of the beach area, again, so close to Barcelona, and I think it's worth a visit. Yeah, sure, I said obviously, if you could spend a week in Barcelona, that would be excellent. There's so much Coast is delightful, and I want to mention some of the festivals. I mean, there are so many. What are your favorites?
Angelo Caratenuto:Well, first of all, Barcelona is a big party city in general. It's a party city for all ages. Traveling for the festivals is definitely a must-do. It can be very, very crowded and the biggest events are in the September Festival, which is about a week long, and it's concerts, it's parades. The highlight of it, which happens in the middle Festival, which is about a week long, and it's concerts, it's parades. The highlight of it, which happens in the middle of the Gothic Quarter, is what the Carolingians call the Castelleros, which is these human-built towers. I'm sure people have seen pictures of a challenge where people start climbing on each other and try and build the tallest human tower in the square. The entire festival is called La Merced and it happens in September.
Angelo Caratenuto:Another one which is in honor of the patron saint of Barcelona is St Jordi's Day, which happens in April. It's sort of like the Catalonian versions of Valentine's Day, but the difference really is that instead of taking out somebody or your second half, your better half, or gifting something, you generally exchange books and roses and yeah, so the city decks out for St Jordi' and it fills out with flower stands, book stalls, all the shops sell you a version of the other. It's really unique. Then there's various music festivals. Two that I would recommend are the Primavera Sound and the Sonar Festival Huge international music festivals, big names if you're interested in just rolling stones kind of thing, or up-and-coming artists. So really you're going to have four or five festivals to choose out of, depending on your interest.
Lea Lane:Barcelona goes back from Roman times to the moment, for sure. Well, the name of the podcast is Places. I Remember. So, Angelo, would you please share a favorite memory of your time spent in Barcelona, and I know there are many?
Angelo Caratenuto:The very first memory I have of Barcelona is a small little romantic getaway with my later to be wife, Christine, and she had bought a weekend in Barcelona for us for my birthday present.
Angelo Caratenuto:I have to humbly admit that I'm a Michael Bublé fan, and at that time it was 2014,. He was performing there, and so the reason of the trip was to go see Michael live, and she got the best seats possible. But then, obviously, working in travel and working in tourism, we spent three or four days deep, diving into the experience of being in Barcelona, and we explored everywhere. We took tours, we went to museums, we took a jogging tour in the morning to see the city wake up before the markets open as streets are still being cleaned. We drank, we partied, we went to gin and tonic bars. It was so refreshing and so romantic at the same time that on the flight back, we were so fulfilled spiritually, mentally, physically fulfilled with our experience. But then that's how it also became the very first city we wished to open and one of the cities we've been wanting, desiring and wishing to ever move to with our children.
Lea Lane:That's wonderful. We can all use being fulfilled, that's for sure. And a city, if they can do that, it's special. Thank you so much, angelo Carotenuto, from LivT ours. You've helped us discover the many delights of a truly great world city Barcelona, Spain.
Angelo Caratenuto:Thanks, thank you for having me, Lea.
