What was the inspiration for the custom of serving a snack with every drink you order in a bar or café? The Spanish word tapa literally means “a lid”. Peasants going out to toil in the fields would take with them a jug of wine sealed by a piece of bread on which would be a slice […]
Lying between the high peaks of the Sierra Nevada range and the shores of the Mediterranean is a mountainous region called “La Alpujarra”, which until relatively recent times was ignored by tourists and whose inhabitants lived in an isolation perhaps best summed up as “a land known only unto its sons” by 19th century travel […]
Flamenco, described by the playwright-poet, Garcia Lorca, as “one of the most gigantic inventions of the Spanish people”, is the art form most readily associated with Spain and in particular the south. Its specific origins, although shrouded in much myth, undoubtedly lie in Andalusia, nurtured by its sizeable Gitano (Gypsy) community. The Gypsies’ presence in Spain […]
The Granada International Festival of Music & Dance is one of the most prestigious music festivals in Europe, with more than half a century of history behind it and the involvement of some of the leading names in classical music and dance. Renowned for the beauty of its settings, which makes extensive use of the […]