To see Antonio Gaudi’s genius in all its finished glory (La Sagrada Familia is still under construction) we take aficionados of his work go to La Pedrera, also known as Casa Milá on our Gaudi Cultural Tours.

Built for the Milá family between 1906 and 1910 on Passeig de Gracia in Barcelona, this is one of the most imaginative residential buildings ever built. The façade is made of harmoniously undulating rock formations that culminate at the top with strange and colorful sea-shell like formations and statues which are actually chimneys for the apartments below. Flowing vines were forged out of iron for the balcony guards of each apartment. Each apartment is supported by traditional Catalan “totxo” (brick) arching walls that Gaudi often incorporated into his unique designs.

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If there’s one thing you’ll learn for certain as you browse cafes, fine dining establishments and the plates of all the natives around you, it’s that Spaniards are proud of their ham, or jamón iberico. With one taste of this rich specialty, you’ll already know why, but a little background on what makes it so special will further astound you. On our Barcelona Culinary Tours you will be able to taste the famous Joselito, the best Spanish Iberian Ham, but here are some basics facts about this absolute delicacy.

Instead of being crowded into dirty farms, the pigs that make jamón iberico are raised free range in a forest called a dehesa where there is about one hectare of space for each pig there. These forests, which take up 2 million hectares of land in Spain, is full of ancient oak trees with pastures that have have been kept clear and intact by workers for centuries also. The pigs only graze on fresh acorns, or bellotas, dropping from the trees and the fresh herbs growing around it. So much of their diet is made up of acorns, in fact, that some studies have shown jamón iberico has much more of the healthy kind of fat found in nuts than unhealthy saturated fat. Nutritionist Grande Covián even called the Iberian pig “an olive tree with four legs.”

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