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Photo by Tara Stevens
Wild turbot
Wild turbot
2 of 2
Photo by Tara Stevens
Walking Vilanova to Sitges
Walking Vilanova to Sitges
One of the best things surely about living in Barcelona is how quickly you can get out of it: an hour one way and you can be in Garraf, Sitges or Vilanova, an hour the other and you have Sant Pol de Mar, Girona or Vic, all of which are easy day trips that can be combined with a mooch around a pretty old town, a long walk along the beach or a cycle in the hills.
In the glorious weather this past Sunday, myself and a friend took a train to Sitges and walked along the cliff-tops back to Vilanova i la Geltrú. It’s an easy route: 45-minutes on the flat from the station along the seafront promenade, past the Modernista mansions and architects' second homes, the hulking, cruise-liner-like Terramar Hotel and the Atlantida nightclub until you finally get up onto the herb-scented cliffs and secluded pebble beaches of the Costa Dorada, which pop you out in Vilanova an hour or so later.
If you’re only here for the walking, you get better views going the other way from Vilanova to Sitges, but my reason for this approach was to check out lunch at La Botiga (Passeig Marítim 75, 93 815 6078) – one of the traditional old fisherman’s haunts just behind the port. Inside it’s the usual wood-panelled nautical themes, outside there’s a pretty bougainvillea-covered terrace, and a less pretty tented one. Get there by 1.30pm and chances are you’ll get lucky with a table on either.
What I liked most about it was that it’s so thoroughly down-to-earth; the service functional rather than fawning, the fish and seafood supremely fresh and simply done, the rice and fideus rustic-looking and deeply fragrant (though I haven’t yet tried them). We began, as one does in these parts, with the local specialty: a xató salad of crisp escarola lettuce mixed with slivers of salt cod and tuna, tossed in homemade romesco sauce and garnished with anchovies, followed by monster slabs of juicy, plump wild turbot, charred on the outside, pearly white and yielding in the middle, with a little heap of escalivada on the side. The wine a bottle of Can Feixes Blanc Seleccio 2009, which blends the local grapes of Parellada, Macabeo and Malvasía de Sitges with Chardonnay resulting in harmonious zesty, minerally fresh flavours that go perfectly with the local seafood. We had no dessert, but were sated to the gills and the bill I thought a fair €40 a head.
All in all then a meal worth walking for. Bon profit, amics.