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Come to the carnival in Spain

Fiesta Fun in Valencia
Claire Webb - 2 January 2020
Move over, Barcelona. Spain’s third-biggest city ticks a lot of the same boxes as its Catalonian cousin: a seductive old town, otherworldly architecture, a fabulous food market and great beaches. Its trump card? It only gets crowded once a year, during its riotous religious festival, Las Fallas.

 

Valencia’s historic quarter, Barrio del Carmen, dates back 1,000 years and is still the city’s coolest neighbourhood, with cobbled lanes packed with hip boutiques, stylish restaurants, bohemian cafés and cocktail bars. Its grandest medieval building is the Gothic Silk Exchange, which has twisting columns and impudent gargoyles, while the best view in town is from the top of the 13th-century Cathedral’s tower. Down below, in its shadowy recesses, there’s a demonic painting by Goya and a jewelled cup that’s said to be the Holy Grail.

 

In mid-March, the square next to the cathedral is the stage for a unique ceremony: Valencians in traditional dress decorate a giant effigy of the Virgin Mary with thousands of flowers. It’s part of Las Fallas, Valencia’s answer to carnival — five days of fireworks, street parties and processions to celebrate the arrival of spring. Hundreds of satirical papier-mâché effigies are paraded through the streets and the fiesta ends with an all-nighter: all the puppets are burnt except for the best, which is preserved in the Fallas Museum.

 

UNESCO has added Las Fallas to its “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” list, and Valencia is also set to be crowned World Design Capital in 2022. While it might not have Gaudí’s fantastical creations, it has a futuristic cultural quarter courtesy of local boy Santiago Calatrava. The City of Arts and Sciences has a spaceship-like opera house, an Imax cinema resembling a giant eye, a science museum like a whale’s skeleton and an aquarium that looks like a water lily.

 

There’s plenty to satisfy foodies, as well. Valencia is the birthplace of paella, which is traditionally made with rabbit and chicken, and sometimes duck and snails. The central market is an art nouveau temple to food, where you can try horchata — a milky drink made with tiger nuts — and admire the region’s bountiful produce. In 2020, the city is getting its first gourmet food hall, where hungry visitors will be able to sample Valencian and Mediterranean dishes.

 

Valencia sits on Spain’s sunny east coast, gazing across the Balearic Sea to Ibiza, and its golden beaches are the place to be in the summer months. Cruise ships dock next to the marina, while restaurants line Las Arenas beach, including La Pepica, where Ernest Hemingway enjoyed paella.

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