When I speak with Laura Ponts, digital content creator, gastronomic stylist, and cook, she is eating an ice cream by the pool in her village, in Ponts, where she says there are barely four other people and it's wonderful. She admits that if she had to name a beautiful place she has been to two or three times, she would choose Monells: “I love it! It's beautiful, day and night, to walk through those alleys, the cobblestones, the medieval center, the arcades… Taüll, despite being very different and being in the mountains, is also ideal, but my favorite place is Ponts”. In this town in La Noguera, which has around 2,000 inhabitants, you can walk along the banks of the river Segre, visit the castle of Sant Pere and enjoy the gastronomic offer. It has about thirty restaurants, it is a usual stop for gastronomic tourism on the Barcelona-Andorra route. “Although on winter afternoons everything is empty, for breakfast or lunch there is movement, especially at the roundabout where there are four restaurants. As they say, Ponts, a place to stop and eat”, she comments.When I lived in Ponts, when I couldn't afford to enjoy the town, friendships, and family, I didn't value it as much. I was used to always working – morning, afternoon, and weekends – at Cansaladeria Vilalta, the family business for four generations. It was many hours of hard work, making our own cured meats and cooking countless prepared dishes: “I didn't have much time. Instead, now I can have breakfast at the bar, sit on the terrace, talk with the neighbors and people passing by, those of us who have known each other all our lives.” The days I am in town, I take the opportunity to disconnect from the city, be in relax mode, with a quiet life: “I am aware that having free time is a luxury. Used to being almost 24 hours connected, I appreciate this rest, being able to stop, and having nothing specific to do.” Many friends from her group have moved to other cities, but she always looks for something to do, she likes each day to be different and to find new challenges. In the evenings, she takes the opportunity to do some sport, walk by the river, or go out for a drink. It is also the occasion to spend time with her mother, who from time to time asks her to visit her: “Yesterday we went to the market, to a friends' garden, where we cooked a ratatouille with the vegetables we had harvested, and then we had lunch together.” She says she loves the city, but she feels fortunate to be able to return to Ponts whenever she wants. “It’s only an hour and a half from Barcelona, and among many other things, I can be in a pool where there is almost total silence. Now I do like Ponts,” she admits.

Gisela Pulido, world champion of kitesurfing, is very clear that the beaches of Sant Pere Pescador are her favorite place in Catalonia: “It's where I learned to do kitesurfing. Besides, I have many memories of being on vacation with my parents”. They used to go on weekends, long weekends, for Easter and in the summer, taking advantage of the fact that the tramuntana in winter, and the garbí and migjorn in summer were perfect for windsurfing, the sport her father practiced. “Used to the beach of Premià de Mar, which is where I'm from and where we lived, Sant Pere had nothing to do with it, it was another world”. Besides the wind, Premià has a more urban beach, with coarser sand, parked cars are visible, and to get there you had to cross the road first and then the train tracks. On the other hand, Sant Pere is an immense beach, the longest in the Gulf of Roses, it is wild, the sand is fine, there are dunes and the easternmost part is part of the Natural Park of the Aiguamolls de l'Empordà. Surely for this reason, even though more than 20 years have passed, it is practically the same as when Gisela was little.  They also went to other beaches like Pals and Empuriabrava, but Sant Pere marked it for what happened on June 24, 2003, her father's saint's day. Until then, Gisela had done windsurfing, surfing and bodyboarding, but kitesurfing was forbidden to her, it was too dangerous for a girl who weighed 30 kilos: “The more they told me no, the more I wanted to try it,” admits the athlete. She remembers that, taking advantage of the fact that the wind was barely blowing, she asked if she could take the equipment to try it in the water. It was the perfect excuse for Joan to say yes. Since then, she hasn't stopped until now, when she is a professional in this sport. She has been told that with only three attempts she managed to get out. A Rip Curl representative who was teaching a class also saw it, and became her first sponsor: “He gave us the card and said we could count on them for any equipment we needed.” Besides kitesurfing, Sant Pere Pescador is a special place for the memories he has with his family. They stayed at the Ballena Alegre campsite with a converted camper van. He loved not having a super-structured plan for what would happen each day and it was always perfect for the children to enjoy: he was with friends, in the pool, playing, eating ice cream and also on the beach where he spent endless hours in the water, diving with goggles, dedicated to looking for 1,000 stones and round pieces of glass, to expand his collection. He also keeps a special memory of breakfasts: “I used to eat toast with oil and salt, and milk with cocoa. I remember the taste of that bread as if I had tasted it a couple of days ago”.

The writer and secondary school teacher Roc Casagran doesn't have many memories of primary school. He would summarize it as a few years in which he had a good time, played and enjoyed himself with friends, "which is what it was all about," he points out, and learned from his teachers: "I barely remember specific activities, except for mental calculation exercises, which I really liked. The important thing there was speed, they gave us 10 mental calculation problems and you had to answer quickly." It surprises him to remember precisely that, considering that he later leaned towards literature. "You know that adults tend to compartmentalize learning, but I like and liked reading and writing and also calculation; it's not incompatible," he assures. Until the first year of primary school he was enrolled at the Escola Nostra Llar in Sabadell. His parents have spoken to him several times about the teachers he had, wonderful professionals with whom he began the process of learning to read and write. "It's a shame I don't remember them, because I learned a lot from them," he comments. Then he went to Joanot Alisanda School, a school with a huge playground compared to the previous one, and which he took advantage of to play football: "I always stayed for lunch; this meant having more time to play and do our own thing. Playing, sweating, and having a good time." What he remembers most from this stage is when he discovered Paco Ibáñez and poetry in general. "It must have been in third or fourth grade, in Spanish class, when they played a song by Paco Ibáñez, and I loved it," he admits. Just as he is unable to name any teacher who marked him from primary school, from secondary school, at the Institut Pau Vila, also public and also from Sabadell, he already has more memories. Here he has more present the classes of the language teachers in general, and more specifically those of Antoni Dalmases, who is also a writer: "He was one of those who not only spoke to you about language and literature. I really liked the teachers who dedicated time to other topics that were not strictly the subject, they spoke about current events and dropped reflections," he comments. At the time, it seemed to him that perhaps they were not very relevant, but, even so, he was interested in the less academic "content" and especially that they treated him not as a small child, but as an almost adult. Another of the teachers who went beyond the content was the writer and Latin teacher, Antoni Pladevall, with whom they spoke about current events and politics.

The Ebre Delta is the place where the artist and musician Yung Rajola has spent his summers his whole life. Since he was little, his parents have spent one or two weeks in the area, and in recent years they rented the same apartment in l'Ampolla that they ended up buying: “It inspires a lot of calm in me and I like that Lleida and the Terres de l'Ebre have in common that we are the great forgotten ones of Catalonia, we share a fight against centralism, we feel united”. For the artist, it is a special place for memories, he associates it with holidays, and for the tranquility it transmits to him: “The Delta is quality time and all that it entails, eating well, being there for you and the people you love, reading, doing sports, which I do practically every day, but there it is in another way, better”. He also likes that all kinds of people go there.  He has been living in Barcelona for ten years and lives with the duality of Lleida - Barcelona, two very different cities. “In Lleida I disconnect, but the place that really makes a difference, where I sleep wonderfully and have a total disconnection is the Delta,” he assures. He goes at least once a month, not always with his parents, sometimes with friends, and he goes all year round. What he has never had is a group, it hasn't been a summer destination where he used to meet up with friends again, nor has he stayed there for a long time. “And now when I go there I'm almost a guest,” he says, smiling. He is surprised that such a special place is still quite unknown, “it is very wild and free, you can go to the beaches with your dog, the food is spectacular, especially the rice dishes, and nowhere have I seen sunsets like the ones here”. In addition, it has the advantage that if you go by car you can reach all the beaches in the area quite well. In the Delta, which is where he composed many of the songs on his latest album, El món no està fet per als romàntics (Halley Records, 2026), he is resting and finding inspiration. Being calm and having free time allows him to focus on music and helps him compose songs. In Barcelona, he has many distractions and finds it harder: “I take advantage of the fact that I can't meet up with friends from Lleida or Barcelona who are writing to me to make plans.” It's also an opportunity to disconnect from screens, which, as a content creator, he finds complicated. Besides making music, he takes the opportunity to exercise, goes running with his mother and cycling with his father, walks along the cliffs, goes to the beach even if it's not swimming season, or goes bird watching: “I'm not an ornithology expert, but it's quite a spectacle when a flock of flamingos suddenly appears in front of you.”

“Deep down I am Empordà, silent and calm,” assures business consultant Txell Costa. L’Empordanet is her vital landscape and her favorite place in Catalonia: “I remember the first time I heard of its existence, Antoni Bassas was interviewing Pasqual Maragall, who had a house around here.” Although it is a label, it is not an official county, it does not exist administratively, but it includes Rupià, Pals, Peratallada, Palau-sator, Monells, Ullastret, Púbol... It is the border between Gironès and Empordà, “the more inland Baix Empordà, small villages, made of stone, and a more relaxed way of life”. He has increasingly sought a quieter life. “What I need is this rhythm and these landscapes, the sunsets and the skies that are only found here,” he comments. Surely that's why it wasn't difficult for him at all to move there, and he believes it will take him quite a while to move to another area, if he ever leaves at all. Perhaps the most complicated change was moving from Barcelona to Girona, even though he felt very comfortable with a city so human-sized, where you can walk everywhere. He says this is the charm of the Empordanet, that Girona is still nearby, and it's easier for him to separate work from the rest. He loves the landscapes, the lifestyle, the connection with nature, that there are few cars and children can ride their bikes peacefully, or that when the village bar closes they stay for dinner together because they are friends. They live a village life and try to make the children put down roots there too. “Living here I have discovered that l’Empordanet is very much alive. The civic centres don't stop offering activities, and there are also many initiatives driven by the people who live there,” she explains. She loves that they haven't lost their essence nor are they blurred by the trends that globalize everything: “Here don't ask for a matcha or a flat white. You don't find avocados on all menus, there's no posing, it's wonderful, an oasis”. They have little treasures, like the quality of the food, which steal the hearts of everyone who visits. Perhaps in winter everything is a little quieter, since shops and restaurants have shorter opening hours or work fewer days. The seasons are also noticeable in the landscape, the colors change. They have gone from sunflowers to the time of the yellow flower, the course of the river is altered according to the irrigation of the fields... And in winter she has to leave earlier to remove the ice from the car window. Costa continues to go to the city to feed herself with ideas, and she can speed up without problems, but she states that her rhythm is that of the Empordanet. "It balances me, what I like most is the peace it gives me," she says, satisfied.

The muralist Lily Brick has her heart divided between the power of the Montserrat mountain, her lands in Lleida, and the inspiration she found in Priorat. She explains that she had the privilege of painting an eight-meter-wide mural at the entrance of the Montserrat Art Museum. It was the first time she had been to the magical mountain: “I felt something very strong, the power of this mountain is indescribable. Now I understand why people from all over the world come, they feel attracted to it and return.” This spirituality and the sensation that time stood still accompanied her during the twenty days she was working there. Accustomed to painting outdoors and having the weather end up consuming everything, here she painted indoors reproductions of some of the most significant works in the collection. “They were days of great peace, I understood many things,” she assures. Another of the Lleida muralist's predilections are the regions of Lleida. After having painted in all of them, she has discovered that it is a territory with many contrasts. She likes the extreme yellows it has, and also when it is green, which looks like an infinite sea of fields with the fog rising first thing in the morning. She argues that just as through food you can discover the culture you visit, the land tastes of what happens there, and the landscape also explains who lives there: “The people of Lleida are plain like their orography. It has a lot of immensity, it is a soft land where you can walk, and the people from Lleida are like that, easy-going, cheerful, tempered”. She assures that fortunately the small towns still preserve their authenticity, and that every day she feels more in love, especially with Les Garrigues. He acknowledges that he increasingly likes the relationship between people and landscapes: “As time goes by, I feel more connected to the countryside and seek rooted people, who understand the land and come from it”. Surely this is why he fell so much in love with Priorat. After spending three months painting there, he was surprised to find them familiar, like a kind of cousins of the people from Lleida, “I had the feeling I had known them all my life,” he recalls. He explains that they are as they are, without artifice or layers, with hands dirty from working the land and the vineyard. Seeing and experiencing how wine is made made him love that area. Also special was the ritual he performed first and last thing in the day, going to the very top of La Figuera, the highest part of the region, known as the sentinel of Priorat: “There, under the pine trees, I saw that in a straight line, beyond the mountains and the windmills, you could see La Granadella, which is Lleida, where the Museum and Centre for the Culture of Oil of Catalonia is located”.

The tiktoker Naim Smaili and his friends like to search social networks for beautiful places to visit later. He explains that from Avinyó, where they live, they have been many times to Barceloneta and Lloret de Mar, and that they take advantage of weekends to discover new destinations, and also during the week if they have availability: “We have been to rivers, to the Sant Ponç reservoir and to various beaches in Catalonia. We are particularly interested in hidden and quiet beaches, where if you want to play or jump, you don't bother anyone”. For this summer he already has a list of coves on the Costa Brava. “We are looking at very nice little things,” he says enthusiastically.  Since he has a car, which will be four years old in September, they take the opportunity to leave the town. Normally it's always the same group, a group of five school friends who have grown up together. One car is enough for them, but if his brother accompanies them or more people join, they split into two or three vehicles. In the car is where he has covered children's songs like The snail no longer sticks out its horn, Little John no longer dances and Mohamed has killed Patufet, which have gone viral. A couple of years ago, on one of these getaways, they went to Vallcarca cove in Sitges, which has become their favorite place in Catalonia: “We jumped from some rocks. At first I thought I wouldn't jump, they must have been about three meters, it impressed me, but then I dared and ended up jumping a couple of times. If it had been higher, we wouldn't have jumped. I, who am in charge of the group, wouldn't have let them jump”. He remembers it as a fantastic day, on which they laughed and enjoyed themselves a lot. They arrived around midday and stayed in the water until sunset. Then they changed their clothes and bought some tacos to eat them calmly from one of the viewpoints: “We were very lucky, because there was practically no one there. We were alone watching the sunset”. They took the opportunity to take photos and videos, and they all have a nice memory of that day. For Smaili, what's special about it is that it's peaceful up there. The viewpoint has a small roundabout with a sidewalk where they usually sit: “The views are spectacular, you can see a part of Sitges, the port, the beach, the sea on the horizon, and all the houses around.” The higher up they are, the less they hear the murmur of people on the beach. This is one of the most peaceful places. “There's no noise, my head doesn't get overloaded, I focus on the views and stop thinking. Your mind opens up and you get inspired,” she explains. They have returned two or three times since then, and she is always amazed.

Nine years ago, Doctor Marimer Pérez, founder and director of the integral women's health and care center WoMer, went to Cerdanya for the first time. “The landscape surprised me, I had never seen it before," she explains. "For someone from Madrid like me, who comes from inland landscapes, these mountains surrounded by so much vegetation seem magical.” The gynecologist and obstetrician associates Cerdanya with many first times of pleasant experiences, which have since marked her life. That first visit coincided with the beginning of the relationship with his partner, Jorge. Back then, he also met Thor and Quercus, the Pyrenean mountain dogs, who have since passed away, but with whom he took countless walks and discovered many of the places he still visits, now with Coffee, who is of the same breed. “Besides, you can take dogs into most establishments here, which makes everything quite a bit easier,” he comments.They take advantage of the weekends to go there and, if they can, they also take advantage of long weekends, “always provided that the births allow it,” she points out, and recalls that more than once they have had to rush to Barcelona and leave everything as it was at home because there was a birth: “That happens, you can’t go too far, you never know when there might be an emergency. It’s the life of an obstetrician”. The green, the climate with the cool nights or sudden showers, the snow in winter, learning to ski or the fireplace, are some of the things she associates with Cerdanya and likes so much. She is also enchanted by the smell of nature and the silence. She assures that coming from a city like Barcelona, the change is brutal, the pace drops suddenly. "It's a close disconnection, without being a remote place, and very real," she affirms. "Here, Coffee doesn't have to dodge cars or stop at traffic lights, and can walk freely." It is also a place that invites outdoor sports, the paths are conditioned, the routes well indicated and you can choose between various difficulty levels. "I cycle a lot. This not having to lock yourself up in places to follow an exercise routine seems wonderful to me. And with skiing I progress adequately, I have dared with some red slopes," she says satisfied.Now that he has been living in Catalonia for half his life, he is not so surprised, but at first he was struck by the fact that most Barcelonans vacationed in the same places, Cerdanya and Costa Brava. He says that in practice this means he meets a lot of patients at the supermarket in Puigcerdà, and admits that he finds it practical: “We have a very good relationship. We take advantage of these coincidences to meet up, each aisle becomes an improvised meeting space, it's fantastic. At the supermarket we meet to go out for dinner”.

A little over two years ago, the artist and illustrator Javi Royo has been living in the Sants neighborhood of Barcelona: “I love living here, it is full of gems; it is undoubtedly my favorite place in Catalonia”. He settled in the neighborhood after living for almost twenty years in Gràcia, next to the Verdi cinemas. He recalls that when he told his friends he was moving to Sants, almost no one understood the change. “It’s strange that people from Gràcia, from one side of Diagonal, and from the other side of Ronda de Dalt, think there is a kind of precipice and they might fall into the void,” he says jokingly. He acknowledges that he is a fan of Gràcia, even though it is losing its neighborhood essence, but he is rediscovering Sants: “They are a kind of cousins, here there are also incredible squares, like Plaça d'Osca, with trees and bars around, and classic wineries are preserved, with their barrels and tapas”. For someone who travels as much as he does, the location is privileged, it is a fifteen-minute walk from Sants station and it takes less than half an hour to get to the airport. He also values the markets, both the Sants market and the Hostafrancs market, with excellent produce and very friendly people at the stalls. He advocates for us to consume in the markets and value them. “I am in love with Xevi's cheeses from Llet crua, the Cex charcuterie with Iberian vending machines every day of the year, a classic like Forn Baltà, the Catalan cuisine menus from Mson, the small plates from Tramendu Bar or the vermouth bar Las Locas,” he explains enthusiastically. He has an endless list of recommendations where culture is also very present with CaixaForum, the Zumzeig cinema, the Heartbreak Hotel theater or the Sala Taro multicultural space. The illustrator is particularly excited by what a taxi driver told him, that Plaça de Sants is where the N-340 ends, the longest national road in the country, which originates in Cadiz. He imagines an arm coming out of Barcelona and stretching until it reaches the Andalusian city with his fingertips. And something similar happens to him with Carrer del Consell de Cent, one of the city's green axes with priority for pedestrians: “It’s a delight for those of us who like to walk. It also starts from the Sants neighborhood and reaches Passeig de Sant Joan. This would be a slightly shorter arm than the one to Cadiz, but capable of tickling the city center”. All this he already finds extraordinary and he still finds a couple more advantages, Montjuïc and neighborhood movements: “It is a fairly organized neighborhood, where associativism and cooperativism have a considerable presence. And on top of that we have this magical mountain, which we often forget, but which is a real gift,” he adds.

Luthea Salom, despite being born in Barcelona, has not lived there since she was eighteen, and from the ages of two to eight, they emigrated to Canada. The singer and children's fashion designer for Lillies Dream, who returns here every year, for Christmas and in the summer, to be with family, admits that she has an emotional connection with the Catalan capital, and surely for this reason it is her favorite place in Catalonia: “It is small and welcoming, nothing like Manhattan, in New York, where I usually live. That place is like a jungle, more dangerous, always on alert, watching who approaches you”. She says that in Barcelona she is more relaxed and has the feeling of being on vacation, which she already is when she comes, but it has more to do with a way of feeling life here.

The curator and paradisdesigner Oscar Guayabero discovered Baix Gaià when visiting friends who had a house in the area. After some time, they did the same, first in La Nou de Gaià, where they were renting, and later, when it started to be difficult to find an apartment in Barcelona, they decided to buy La Montornesa, in La Pobla de Montornès, the neighboring town, “an old village house where we live and are restoring”. It is a studio and a workshop where his partner and he undertake projects, and it is also a meeting place to share knowledge and learning. The idea is that, in addition to living there, it will eventually become a space for courses, workshops, and exhibitions. When everyone was stopped by covid, they began the rehabilitation.He explains that he doesn't have the opportunity to miss Barcelona because he doesn't stop living it, he goes there twice a week and his work is very related to the city. What enchants him about Baix Gaià is that it has a Mediterranean flavor with the dry wall, the dry stone, the carob trees, the olive trees and the vineyards. "It's a fantastic place, a kind of Mallorca for the poor. It has its shortcomings and difficulties but it has a very humanized landscape," he states. They are twelve minutes by car from the beach, which they rarely visit in the summer, except for the late afternoon or at dusk when the crowds leave. The rest of the year they enjoy it a lot. For Guayabero, what's special about this area is that the villages are relatively close and if you move away from the coast, everything is immediately very peaceful. There are villages like his that are not excessively typical or photogenic, and there is still real village life: “The neighbor goes out with the tractor, life happens at the bar… There are cuter places, which although they are starting to become 'Empordà-like' with concerts and painting exhibitions, are nothing like this; here the Catalan bourgeoisie doesn't set foot”.  “I consider myself an economic refugee, neo-ruralists who have had the luck to be able to come and live here,” comments Guayabero. With other "pixapins" like him, he says, who have arrived mainly from Barcelona but also from other parts of the country, they have organized themselves to form an energy community, working with the town hall to install solar panels and share energy. In parallel, they have created a consumer cooperative to buy directly from farmers in the area, and for the rest of the products they make joint purchases. They have also set up a chat where they share cars to move around the villages or get to Barcelona, because depending on the train is a drama. “We do a bit of bubbling, especially with the energy and cultural side. We organize parties, snacks, vermouths, where I usually play music. It’s easier to organize things here,” he assures. And he points out that by leaving Barcelona, you realize that many things happen outside the capital, difficult to see or hear them when you live there, because the city generates a lot of noise on its own.

The parents of the writer Sílvia Soler were in love with the landscape of La Garrotxa. They lived in Olot for six years and, although Sílvia was born in Figueres, she lived there until she was three years old, in Olot. Since then, she has returned every summer of her life. She spends her summers in the volcanic area, between Olot and Santa Pau, and she is clear that this is her favorite place in Catalonia. He finds the landscape beautiful, but what makes it truly special is the sentimental value it holds: “We are the fourth generation that goes there quite steadily. Some years someone is missing, but the seven or eight families that coincide, who are friends from adolescence, try to maintain continuity”. When the children were little they stayed there for the whole month of vacation, and for a good while now they spend about fifteen days there, which everyone preserves in order to meet up. Families have been passing down that these days in La Garrotxa are sacred: “The rest of the year we see each other, but living together is different. The older children continue to go there, even if they work, they spend a couple of days there”. La Fageda is also special for Sílvia because it reminds her of her mother, who was a poet. When she was little and they walked in the area, she would recite verses by Maragall to them, which they all knew by heart. She remembers her parents loving La Garrotxa, which in difficult times has become a space of peace. When I was little, the volcanic area was a lost corner of the world, Olot was less connected and rural and mountain tourism was not so fashionable: “My friends used to go to the Costa Brava or the Daurada. Now many more people spend their summers in this area, but it is still quite peaceful”. Compared to other coastal destinations, this landscape has not changed much, “it belongs to the natural park, it has been wonderfully preserved”. She appreciates the beauty of the landscape, the Fageda, the Croscat… and acknowledges that even though she doesn't do much hiking or mountain excursions, she has spent all summers in a privileged place for this type of activity. “What I do is family life, being with my nephews, whom I don't see so often during the year, and with friends, and enjoying them all. I also take the opportunity to rest and read,” she explains.Soler considers that there are two types of people, those who always vacation in the same place and those who choose the destination. Although since she organizes her holidays in her own way she always keeps a few days to visit other destinations, she finds that she is privileged for "this feeling that the landscape is very yours and that when you return the time is relativized".

Pere Puigdomènech has more than one favorite place: he hesitates between his home in the Sarrià neighborhood of Barcelona or the laboratory at the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), on the UAB campus. He assures that he likes his job very much. But, in the end, neither one nor the other: he opts for Cerdanya. The first few times the physicist and emeritus professor of the CSIC went there with his family was because some friends invited them. They liked it so much that from then on they went there in the summers: first they rented an apartment and then they settled in what would be their second home: “That was more than forty years ago. The Cadí tunnel didn't exist and it took us almost three hours to get there via a relatively complicated road, but it was so nice there that it was worth it.” He recalls that they used to stop at a spa in Ribes to have lunch and then they would head for the Collada de Toses. Explain that the tunnel was a turning point that radically changed Cerdanya. Since access was made easier, many more people come; you no longer know everyone, nor do you see cows or so many flocks of sheep. Now everything is focused on building residences and meeting the needs of holidaymakers, and young people in the area have difficulty becoming independent: “At times it is saturated. I think there will eventually be a shortage of water and some services. In some places you can no longer go because the road is full, even though you move 200 meters away from the most touristy spots and it remains magnificent”. Of Cerdanya, he likes that it is a wide valley and at the same time a small elevated plain at 1,200 meters, which helps to stay cool, with a changing landscape: “I like the feeling of openness, you see the Cadí, Puigpedrós and Puigmal. You can also walk through truly magnificent surroundings and enjoy the wild flora and fauna, which thanks to hunting regulations is returning”. He says that he is wonderful in his apartment, and that he has a small garden and splendid views. In addition, he now arrives there in less than an hour and a half. He can stay there to work, and his children and grandchildren love it.When he is in Cerdanya, he takes the opportunity to cycle and walk, although less than he would like. "I'm approaching eighty, and the doctor advises me not to do anything silly," he says, laughing. He likes to go there to be with family and friends and to go on excursions. The apartment allows him to read and write, especially in August: "I am finishing a book, a reflection on the place that science occupies in today's society".

The mother of fashion designer Krizia Robustella wanted her daughters to have a village: “She liked the idea of having a place to go on weekends and spend the summer, but since my family is from outside, we didn't have one and she looked for it”. The chosen village was Benavarri, in Huesca, on the border with Catalonia, where Krizia has been going since she was twelve. From here she usually goes to what is her favorite place, the Mont-rebei gorge, in the Montsec mountain range. “Every time I go there I think the same thing: it's spectacular”, she says with satisfaction.Over the years, he has seen the transformation that has taken place. At first, there were no walkways or fixed routes; you walked through the fields until you reached the narrowest part. Despite the changes, it is an area that is far from the usual crowds of tourist destinations. Robustella doesn't quite understand why people, when they go on vacation or take a getaway, think of the beach or the mountains and forget about Mont-rebei, which is so worthwhile. But at the same time, he admits that he worries a little about whether, after sharing this marvel, it will start to fill up. For the designer, there are plenty of reasons to go because it has everything: there are pools, waterfalls, rivers, reservoirs, and wonderful excursions can be made: “In the summer you can rent a canoe, go to Sert to eat a sausage or have an ice cream, there are the rural murals of Penelles, and you can even go to Benavarri and eat the roasted pork of Hostal Mars”. She only warns that in the reservoirs you must take into account the winds and currents, so as not to have any scares. In winter he goes on hikes and in summer he takes the car and goes looking for water, reservoirs, rivers or waterfalls: “I am very aquatic”. He says it is always beautiful and that each time of year is different, the colors of spring have nothing to do with those of autumn. Routines also change. When it's cold, he gets home earlier to tidy up the house and play board games, and in summer he takes advantage of being outside all day, and has dinner at a restaurant or takes food for a picnic.The turquoise water of the gorge hypnotizes her. For those who get dizzy like her, she recommends staying in the water. She loves it when she gets in the canoe and passes between giant mountains, through the turquoise blue passageway, where if she looks up she feels tiny. On the other hand, for the more adventurous, there are some stairs attached to the mountain and a couple of incredible bridges. When she goes with her friends, they rent a scooter on the Canelles reservoir for three hours. People usually stay for an hour, but they make the most of it, bringing the cooler with lunch and going to the middle of the reservoir, where they set up with music: “It becomes our yacht, it even has a slide! When I slide down, into that very blue, it’s fantastic,” she says, laughing.

The photographer Andrea Rosemercy is from Girona, lives in Barcelona, and is very clear that her favorite place is Calella de Palafrugell, where her parents have lived for a few years. Beyond the charm of the village and the natural surroundings, what makes it truly special is that it has become the meeting point for the whole family: the parents, the brother who also lives there, and the sister who is in France: “The landscape is very different from that of the city. You can be very quickly close to the sea and nature. In Barcelona you also have sea and mountain, but it is less wild and more prefabricated”. Surely that's why she says it's perfect for resting and where she disconnects very easily from her routine, both in summer and winter. Here she finds tranquility and inspiration for her photos. When she goes there, always, regardless of the time of year, she goes to see the sea: “Sometimes I take the opportunity to create. By the sea I am much more inspired”. She particularly likes the coastal path between Calella and Llafranc, an unfrequented rocky area, where no anchored boats are seen, it is easily accessible and she has the feeling of being alone. She says it might not be as spectacular a stretch as the one from Calella to Cap Roig, which is beautiful, but where there are usually many people. She admits that there is always something that catches her attention and she takes the opportunity to take photos with her analog camera. "And if I don't have it with me, then with my mobile," she points out. Ever since his older brother settled in the town, almost 30 years ago, he has visited it assiduously. Since then, he doesn't think it has changed much and the best thing is that it has kept its essence. The town has grown, there are more people, more services, more commerce, everything is tidier, but the first franchise café has just opened: “It’s a good sign that they haven’t reproduced like in other places”. And he adds that both in Calella and Palafrugell there are people from the town who are opening businesses. In addition to meeting with family, during stays in Calella, try to rest. He admits that in the summer there are many people, but says it's a matter of having different schedules from the tourists and going to less crowded places. When bathing, he prefers to move away from the most popular spots, which quickly fill up. And when it's less hot, he takes the opportunity to walk along the coastal path, go for a vermouth, or have a drink near the sea. He associates Calella with family gatherings and also with friends: “From time to time, I meet up with them to share all this that I like so much, especially what is less typical, and enjoy the quieter areas”.

The existence of the Centre d’Art i Natura (CAN) in Farrera is one of the reasons why Júlia Díaz and Roc Bernadí, members of the electropop group queer Svetlana, choose Farrera, in Pallars Sobirà, as their favorite place in Catalonia: “It is paradise, for nature, for the source of disconnection it represents, and for all the work we have done here”. In Farrera they have composed their debut album, Marrana, and other singles like Toi pegao, the result of the three residencies they have done there in the last two and a half years. When they started writing songs seriously, they decided to go there: “It’s a huge disconnection. When you pass Sort and take the turn-off, it seems like you’re entering another world. You go up the mountain and leave your daily life behind.” They assure that Farrera and an environment like the Vall Ferrera is fantasy, and the walks have been a great source of inspiration for them: “On the path from Farrera to Alendo, where only three people live, many songs have come out.” They explain that Albert Baldomà, director of CAN, and his entire team, have always helped them a lot. Artistic and scientific residencies are held at CAN, “singers, writers, Catalan language scholars or butterfly experts coincide here”. They are convinced that this cultural, artistic and scientific cultivation is very enriching. Each person has their own space where they create, research and focus on their work, and in the evening they meet for dinner together and share their universes. “While we were composing Sarnalona, three retired professors were preparing a dictionary. In addition, looking out of those windows is impressive, you have an incredible panoramic view of the Alt Pirineu”, they recall.  They have stayed in the residences for less time than they would have liked, four or five days, but they try to make the most of their stays, considering that the journey from Barcelona involves many hours on the road. They also had the privilege of participating in the Saó Festival, which brings together residents from different countries and disciplines, “from music to dance, plastic arts… a bit of everything, it is the culmination of the year, a meeting point for those of us who have been residents”. “We want to go back, it’s a truly special place for us, where we have created very beautiful things,” they say excitedly. And now that they are preparing the next album, which will be released in early 2027, they believe it could be a good time. They announce that it will be an album of contrasts and contradictions, which will be presented in a unique and special show on March 13 at the Sant Jordi Club in Barcelona.

When the clown and stage creator Guillem Albà was almost six years old, his parents performed with the puppet theatre company L’Estaquirot Teatre: “They did summer tours specifically to take us with them, my brother and me, and to be together, also with our grandparents, until the time of the performance, when we all went to see the show,” he recalls. They stayed for a few days in different coastal towns like Calella, Sant Feliu, or Palamós, but he has always associated those summers with Blanes. He admits he couldn't explain in full detail what Blanes is like, even though he has returned there as an adult, always drawn by the memory of those holidays.

Peaks, summits, ridges, edges, spurs, glaciers, gullies, walls, rocks, valleys, lakes, meadows, flowers, forests, paths, smells, colors… scientist Lluís Torner likes everything the mountain offers him and especially what is found in the Pyrenees: “It is impossible for me to choose a specific place, I like all of the Pyrenees and I do most of the things that can be done there. When I was young I did a lot of climbing, now I climb peaks, go down valleys and with my family I like to ski and go see lakes. In the mountains I am happy and in the Pyrenees even more so”. He believes that one of the reasons why he likes it so much is for the aesthetics, the beauty of what he sees, and even though humans are polluting the planet, the mountain is still, almost always, a pure and clean place, which allows for intense contact with nature.He is unable to remember the first time he went there. He explains that for someone from Berguedà, like him, hiking is common. Upon reaching adolescence, he went to climb the first peaks in the Pyrenees, with older and more knowledgeable people. He admits that since the eighties the landscape has changed quite a bit; then there were about twenty glaciers and now there are four left, and they are small. He comments that it is visible proof that the planet is warming as a whole, a shame for what it means and because this spectacle of nature is disappearing. Torner refers to the white that remained in the summer, a white part around rocks that are usually red: “In mid-July the snow had already disappeared, only the old, black ice remained, and it is not the same. It is sad, the mountains look strange, as if they had been stripped bare.”As an adult, he has also continued to go to the mountains: “When we made family plans, they were in the mountains. The children, even if they didn't like it as much, already knew we were going,” he says, smiling. He is also proud to have many mountain friends, to enjoy it with friends and family, and assures that apart from them, science and the mountains have been and are his life.

Until not so long ago, Conrad Roset's relationship with Girona was sporadic. The artist, illustrator and director of Nomada Studio had been there a couple of times, and back when his brother was studying at university, he had also gone to party at the stalls, during the Sant Narcís festival. That Girona has nothing to do with the one he now enjoys a few years ago, as they often go there taking advantage of visits to his partner's family in Santa Coloma de Farners: “I’ve been discovering it little by little and I like it more and more. We go for walks, to some shops, to dinner… It has many things that have stolen my heart.” He explains that if they ask his son Guim where in Catalonia he wants to go, he will surely always say to Nomo, his favorite restaurant, a Japanese place in the old town. Girona is Conrad's favorite place: “It's beautiful and well-kept, culturally it's alive, things happen there”. He talks about the concerts he's attended at l'Estrenes and Festivalot or the exhibitions at Fontana d'Or. He also appreciates specialty coffee, which he values more in this city where there isn't a place on every corner, and emphasizes the dining scene: “This year we went to El Celler de Can Roca, it's a spectacular experience”. Another incredible thing about the city is its proximity to the sea and to a series of beautiful Romanesque villages, such as Monells, Madremanya, Púbol or Peratallada, with an architecture, he says, incredible and where a Mediterranean vibe that he really likes can be felt. Roset has also been in Girona for work, giving talks about video games: “The GameGi is a video game incubation program that is located in El Modern, a former cinema. The place is fantastic”. He admits that on some of these visits he also considers the possibility of moving there and imagines himself living there: “We left Barcelona years ago, we are very happy in Terrassa, we have a better quality of life than in the capital, although sometimes it feels a bit small for me”. Nevertheless, he is convinced that if they moved to Girona, the same thing would happen to them as to many people from Girona, who complain that the city is overcrowded, is losing its identity, is full of cyclists and establishments designed mainly for tourists. A small-scale replica of what happened in Barcelona. “It's surely happening, but from the outside it's hard to see all that,” he assures.

About twenty years ago, fashion designer Miriam Ponsa was returning from a fashion show at the Benicàssim Festival, where they had been invited, and they stopped at the Ebro Delta. She recalls they were exhausted: “We were towing the car with a 70s caravan attached. There was absolutely no one, you could park on the sand and make a fire.” That's how she began to discover the Delta, her favorite place in Catalonia. From then on, she went there first with friends, in tents, and then with her family in a camper van. She comments that the camper and caravan areas have changed a lot, everything is very organized, but the rest maintains its essence quite a bit, there is little infrastructure in the beach area and not many beach bars are set up either: “You can still go to places where you don't meet almost anyone, it's very nice there, and it's a bit wild, I love it,” she explains.