Made from shortcrust pastry, shaped like a crescent moon, and filled with cream. That's the flaona, one of our Garrotxa desserts that, unlike the chicharrones cake or the aniseed roscón, has largely fallen into oblivion in recent decades. But now Lluís Riera, who has been preparing it every Friday at Cacau Pastisseria for the past 18 years, has set out to revive it. And he's doing it in style. "On the first Sunday of March, we will celebrate the first Aplec de la Flaona (Flaona Gathering). We will meet in the Plaça Major of Olot at 9 a.m. wearing barretinas (traditional Catalan caps), sashes, and seven-striped espadrilles. We will climb to the top of the Sant Francesc volcano accompanied by folk and traditional music. And at the top, we will eat flaones and drink a sip of ratafia.

Everyone stops. The windows of Bombonería Almera are like a mesmerizing flame. It's impossible not to be captivated by this historic shop. In fact, Pedro Almodóvar himself once came in, hoping to feature it in one of his films. I'm standing at the door when I run into a lifelong customer. She's come to buy two boxes of chocolates for some friends. She says her mother, who lived well into her nineties, came here to buy sweets her whole life. Receiving a gift from Ca l'Almera, as any Badalona resident will call it, is always a big celebration. Because of the quality and the love they put into wrapping the packages. On Sunday, their day off, Teresa Almera was inside the shop making bows, of all things. "Nobody makes bows anymore," she tells me. Teresa is the kind of shopkeeper who doesn't count the hours and who lives her work with enthusiasm for preserving her grandfather Cinto's legacy.