Day Trip: Tarragona

Tarragona is a city atop a city, with visible layers of history tracing back millennia. The Roman capital of its region and the oldest Roman settlement on the Iberian peninsula, Tarragona is home to a fascinating collection of Roman ruins, including the circus, amphitheater, city wall and dozens of seemingly random structures that have either been left untouched in the middle of the street or incorporated into new structures. (Some residents of Tarragona can claim a two-thousand-year-old wall or basement.) Part of the reason many of these structures still stand is because they were repurposed throughout history—for example, both part the circus and the amphitheater were used as prisons, among other things. While exploring the site, visitors should stop at Patisseria Granja Diba for a xuxio, a traditional Catalan pastry that is deep fried and filled with crema catalana.

Logistics: Tarragona is just over an hour drive and an hour-and-twenty-minute train ride from Barcelona. Those driving should stop at the quarry and aqueducts located just outside of the city. They may also consider stopping in the charming former fishing village of Sitges on the return trip for a seaside lunch or shopping.