Time for a fiesta

There are two things you can be pretty sure of getting in Sitges... sunshine and a good party.

Actually, make that three and add excellent tapas to the list.

In fact, put it at the top because on a four-day trip to the Mediterranean town, 35km south of Barcelona, I didn’t eat one that was less than good – and most were rated spectacular.

And I ate a lot of tapas, probably my own body weight and then some.

It’s the kind of food I love, lots of little taster dishes giving wonderful flavours of Spanish cuisine.

Fresh fish and vegetables, cured meats, lots of seafood... all delicious ingredients prepared with skill and presented with style.

The town is full of restaurants serving traditional dishes with a modern twist to visitors and locals alike.

The promenade 

We could have happily spent our whole time there nibbling on toasted almonds, fat olives, tomato and anchovy topped ciabatta, soft, succulent fried squid... but luckily for our waistlines there were other distractions to lure us away from the table.

Sometimes referred to as the Saint-Tropez of Spain, the town does share some similarities with the glitzy French resort.

It’s definitely more Cote d’Azure than Costa Brava.

Expensive yachts are anchored in the harbour, well-dressed residents promenade along the seafront and there are plenty of upmarket shops to spend your euros in.

But it has a more understated manner and when we visited in late June had the feel of a lived-in town – albeit a very clean and smart one – more than a pure tourist destination. Which is perhaps surprising given that Sitges’ economy is based on tourism and culture offering more than 4,500 hotel beds.

And that nearly 35 per cent of the 26,000 permanent inhabitants are from the Netherlands, the UK, France and Scandinavia, whose children attend international schools in the area.

It’s not hard to see the attraction, along with 17 sandy beaches, the town also offers a wealth of cultural interest and a packed schedule of fiestas.

Sitges seems to be the party capital of Spain, with at least one major event occurring every month of the year.

The beach

Well, it is the home of the original Pacha club.

Many of the events – some lasting a week or longer – attract hundreds of thousands of visitors both from the surrounding areas and abroad.

We’d just missed Gay Pride (Sitges is known for its gay-friendly attitude) and were too early for the upcoming poetry festival but visited just right for the Sitges Corpus Christi Flower Festival.

This annual event sees the town centre filled with floral carpets as people compete to produce the best executed designs.

The participants turn the streets in a show of incredible colours as they vie to have their street declared the most beautiful carpet in Sitges.

We’d noticed interesting tiles on the walls of some of the streets and discovered these celebrated former festival wins. Businesses, schools and neighbours create intricate designs and displays.

On the Saturday evening, we wandered through the streets at about 11pm to find young and old involved in marking out the roads with their patterns, ready to be filled with flowers and petals the following morning.

The sea

Work began in earnest at 7am the next day (we were told!) and by the time we revisited there were throngs of people delightedly viewing around floral decorations.

We never did find out exactly what it was all about – religious significance seems to have been lost – but the tradition dates back to 1887.

Around 360,000 carnations are used in its preparation, in addition to other types of flowers, but it’s a fleeting beauty. In the evening four “giants” dance over the carpets and they are destroyed.

Then it’s on to preparations for the next fiesta. Before the end of the year the town will also host in August the 10-day Fiesta Mayor – the biggest annual festival, in honour of Sant Bartomeu, the patron saint of Sitges – when the giants will be back along with processions, music and dance and castellers groups that build human towers.

In September there’s Bears Week (think men, not animals), a wine and food festival and Santa Tecla (said to be a smaller and less crowed version of Fiesta Mayor).

And in October there’s an International Film Festival, which started in 1968 and includes an annual Zombie Walk, said to be a must for any fantasy/horror fan. So fun, food and 300 days of sunshine a year... I’m already planning my next visit.

ESSENTIALS

* For information about the town, its accommodation, attractions, events and activities see the Sitges Tourist Board website at sitgestur.cat
* We stayed at Dolce Sitges Hotel 5*: dolcesitges.com
* We visited Montserrat: abadiamontserrat.net
Sitges Museum Romantic and Maricel Palace: museusdesitges.cat
Casa Bacardi: bacardi.es
* Activities included Sitges by sea: portdesitges.com
surcandomares.com
Cooking workshop: salsaverde.es
* We ate at Restaurant: La Taberna del Puerto: latabernadelpuerto.net
PIC NIC: restaurantpicnic.com
Fragata: restaurantefragata.com